by Ike Hamill
“There,” she said, pointing. By the time that Liam caught up, he only caught a glimpse of a shadow dissolving into the floor like an evaporating puddle.
“Give me a boost,” Mike said.
Sariah raised her eyebrows.
“Liam, then you give me a boost. Here—put your hands like this,” Mike said, demonstrating.
Liam had no idea what Mike was about to do, but he intertwined his fingers and hunched over like Mike demonstrated. Sariah moved close. Mike put on hand on her shoulder, and his foot up in the cradle of Liam’s hands.
Liam almost collapsed at Mike’s weight. Somehow, he kept his balance and didn’t let go of the foot. The few seconds were agony until Mike dropped back to the floor.
“The ceiling is smooth, but there is one part that felt a little warm. I wonder if it’s some kind of hologram?”
Sariah was shrugging and looking up.
Liam wiped his hands on his pants, trying to see what they saw on the ceiling. Mike pointed and mumbled something. Sariah nodded.
“So, you think you know what’s making the shadows?” Liam asked.
Mike and Sariah both shook their heads and Mike said, “No.”
“This isn’t the room I saw,” Liam said. “It’s like one of the ones, but it’s not the one.”
Sariah marked the room on her notepad. She had filled several pages with hand-sketched maps. Liam had no doubt that she would be able to piece it back together into one big picture. To him, it made little sense.
“I’ll put this down as two adults, room for four,” she mumbled to herself.
Mike was across the passage, trying to open the door there.
“What’s the trick?” he asked. “Didn’t you just put your hand on it and slide?”
Liam moved over. When he reached out, he barely had to touch the panel. It moved to the side easily. Behind the door, the lights came on to show a long room with several beds evenly spaced. Each had its own night stand on one side and a dresser at the end. A hassock at the foot of each bed looked like it might have a lid that would reveal more storage.
“Simple, but livable,” Mike said, stepping in. “I wouldn’t want to stay for months, but maybe if we hung sheets we would get more privacy.”
“No need,” Sariah said, stepping up behind them. She was making more notes on her map. “Sixteen beds. Room for sixteen. We’re not squeezing more in here.”
Liam was about to ask what she meant by, “No need.”
Sariah touched the wall next to a nightstand and then waved Liam over.
“Put your hand right here.”
When Liam did, a divider began to emerge from the wall. They stepped out of the way as it slid between them. The hassock at the end of the bed unfolded to complete the enclosure. Liam found himself inside a little cube of space. There was just enough room for the bed, furniture, and an area where he might take two paces before he had to turn around. Some would call it claustrophobic. Liam would call it perfect.
He heard a knocking on the new wall.
Liam touched it and swiped to the side to make it slide back into the wall.
“Efficient,” Sariah said. “Too bad we don’t have more singles. I’m afraid that couples won’t find it desirable.”
“You might be surprised,” Mike said.
She frowned at him.
Following Mike and Sariah, seeing the place through their eyes, the bunker almost became mundane. They counted the rooms, moving methodically down the corridors. They watched avidly for shadows or shapes that would have frightened Liam. Mike wanted another chance to investigate the source of the apparitions. Sariah only seemed to want the experience.
It seemed that the world was like a movie to them. They were unaffected by what they saw except to discuss and take notes.
“Let’s call this loop of corridors a pod,” Sariah said. “It’s a perfect mirror image of the last pod. How many pods do you think would be contained?”
Mike looked up at the ceiling and spoke as he calculated.
“If I had to guess, I would say that the machines we saw would support less than ten. Still, that gives us more than enough space for everyone who came down. We’ll be able to give people the choice of quarters. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people choose to bunk in the big rooms. At least until they adjust, people are going to be comforted by friendly faces around.”
“We should find our way to the dining and food prep,” Sariah said. “That’s going to be the immediate need.”
They both turned to Liam. He felt the weight of their scrutiny.
“I don’t know. I think it’s this way.”
When they let Liam lead the way, he felt vulnerable and exposed. His heart thudded as he rounded the corners. He stopped immediately when Sariah paused to write on her notepad.
“Seems logical enough. I wish I knew where the environmental controls were,” Mike said.
Liam blushed. “I should have showed you. There is a control panel in the officer’s bathroom.”
Mike smiled and shook his head. “In the bathroom? This must have been built for politicians. They did all their best work in the bathroom.”
Sariah laughed. Liam shrugged.
“I think it’s this way,” Liam said, once Sariah had finished drawing.
He started again, only to freeze when he felt her hand on his shoulder.
“What is it?” Mike asked quietly.
“You don’t hear that?” she asked.
Liam could only hear his own heart thudding.
When he saw the shape at the end of the corridor, he tried to be like Mike and Sariah. He tried to study the movement, looking for clues to its origin and fire up his curiosity. It didn’t work. His rubbery legs only wanted one thing—to run.
Mike grabbed his arm and held him in place until he saw the identity of the person who was running out from the darkness. It was Robby’s son, Jim.
The boy locked his eyes on them and sprinted toward them.
When he got to them, Mike caught him by the arms as Jim panted, gulping down breaths with wild eyes.
“What is it?” Sariah asked him. “Where are your dad and sister?”
“In the kitchen,” Jim said. “You have to help.”
He pulled Mike back down the corridor. They ran as fast as they could to keep up.
Chapter 63: Brad
Brad threw himself around the corner, letting the darkness swallow him. A hand darted out and dragged him toward the wall. From her grip alone, he knew it was Romie. He flattened himself next to her.
As he ran—shuffling as fast as he could through his limp—he had tossed away his glow stick, for fear that it would attract the attention of the shadowy thing. Romie had done the same.
“We have to get back downstairs,” she said.
Brad agreed. They needed to warn the others that some intruder had entered the school.
“Through the laundry,” he whispered back. He reached down and found her hand so he could guide her through the darkness. Brad fumbled his way through the teacher’s lounge, the little kitchen, and then through the door to the laundry. He thought he remembered a door at the back that would lead to the locker room.
“What was it?” Brad whispered as he shut the door behind them. What little light that had leaked through the kitchen windows was gone now. The laundry room smelled of soap and clean linen. Brad ran his hand down the wall to try to find his way to the back.
“No idea,” she said. “It was up to no good though.”
His foot hit a rolling hamper and they froze until it came to a stop.
“Yeah, I felt that way too,” he said.
Brad’s hip banged into the side of a deep sink. He traced the outline and stepped to move around it. By the time he thought to warn Romie, he was too late. She ran into it as well.
“A little farther,” he whispered.
“What would make us both feel so…”
“Menaced?” he asked.
“Exactly,” she said
.
“I haven’t the foggiest notion,” Brad said. It was an expression that his grandfather had used. Brad hadn’t ever heard it cross his own lips, as far as he could remember. It seemed oddly appropriate that he was turning into his grandfather. The old man had been superstitious as hell. He would have had a name for the shadowy thing in the school office, and he would have had a theory about where it came from too. Brad wanted to keep an open mind, but it was impossible. He had felt the menace. It was real.
His hand, feeling along the wall, found the seam of the door and then found the handle.
“Romie?” Brad whispered.
“Yeah?”
“You have another one of those glow sticks?”
“Maybe.”
He heard her free hand patting her pockets and then the crinkle of plastic.
“Yeah?”
“Before we open this door, maybe we ought to make sure that we’re alone in here.”
She was silent for a moment while she considered.
“Yeah. Okay.” Her voice was flat and resolved as she let go of his hand. Those two words had sounded more like the Romie that Brad knew so well. Brad realized that most of the reason that he had been frightened was because of Romie’s fear. Normally, she was everyone’s rock.
The package rustled and he heard Romie tear it open.
She whispered, “Shit!” It bounced at their feet. Romie brushed by him as she bent over. A second later, she straightened back up and said, “Got it.”
“What happens if I crack this stick and that thing has followed us in here?” Romie asked.
“We try to contain it in this room. Save the others,” Brad said.
“What makes you think doors are going to stop it?”
Brad thought and couldn’t come up with a good answer. He was operating on instinct, fueled by nothing more than dread.
“I don’t know,” Brad admitted.
He heard the crack of the glow stick. As the pink light began to emanate, he saw Romie’s eager face, lit from below. She stared at the stick for a moment and then shook it as her eyes darted around. Romie managed to keep her fear from showing in her expression, but Brad still saw it hiding in her eyes. Still shaking the stick, making the soft shadows dance, Romie spun to look around the laundry room. Deep shadows pooled behind the machines and under the folding tables. The sinks might as well have been filled with black ink.
The menace was there—it had followed them somehow into the room—but Brad couldn’t see any definitive sign of it.
Romie turned back to him.
“I don’t see it,” she said.
The way the glow stick lit up her face, it almost looked like she was smiling. Inquisitive shadows sailed up from her eyebrows.
“Romie,” he whispered, “it’s right behind you.”
The shadow was coalescing just behind her head. A finger of darkness was creeping around her arm. Her hand slowly dropped, taking away the light.
Brad could barely see her face just before she tossed the stick to the side and said, “Go!”
Despite their agreement to try to keep thing trapped, Brad’s hand jerked the door open and he pushed her through. He followed fast, pressing himself against Romie as he pulled the door shut behind them. It clicked closed and he felt the dread ebb. Romie jerked him forward by his shirt and Brad stumbled after. Around the corner, they were back in the locker room, heading toward the light of other people who held glow sticks.
“Back downstairs,” Romie said.
Mandy shook her head. “Debbie and the kids are still in the bathroom.”
“I’ll get them,” Romie said. “The rest of you, downstairs and stay together.”
Romie ran off. Brad wanted to go with her, but he knew that he would just slow her down.
“Where are the rest of the sticks?” Brad asked.
“We took them downstairs to ration them,” Mandy said.
They heard Romie’s voice echoing in the bathroom. She was calling to Debbie and anyone else in there.
“That’s smart, but I’m afraid we might have to use them right away.”
“Why? What do you mean?” Mandy asked.
“Downstairs,” Brad said. He glanced back to make sure that Romie was on her way. She was herding Debbie and her kids back to safety. They rushed downstairs.
People had already taken to the idea of rationing the glow sticks. There were only three of them currently lit, and the rest were spread out in rows and columns on the floor so everyone could see the inventory.
“Let’s crack a dozen of those and set up a circle around us,” Brad said. “We’ll put two sticks on the stairs. Kids will be in the center of the circle and adults around the outside.”
“Wait—why?” Mandy wanted to know. “If we do that, we’ll be burning half of our supply. How long will they last? We won’t even make it until dawn.”
“There’s something in the darkness,” Brad said. “We don’t know exactly what it is, but it doesn’t seem to like those sticks. We’ll be better off if we light them.”
“Something like what? A predator? Did you see George?” Debbie asked.
“We didn’t see anyone. Are Pam and Kevin here?” Romie asked.
People glanced around. Some shook their heads.
Mandy sounded frightened when she said, “No.”
“Okay, so we’re missing Pam, Kevin, and George. Anyone else?” Romie asked.
“Tell us what you saw,” Dave asked, pushing to the front. Brad didn’t know much about the man. He had younger kids and he wasn’t very social. When the mother of his children had moved back to Donnelly, Dave had chosen to stay put. After a month or so of living alone, and rejecting invitations to dinners and parties, the mother had sent the kids back to live with him. Ever since, he had been somewhat reclusive.
“It was really difficult to see,” Romie said.
“It wasn’t a person,” Brad said. “If anything, it was like a void. I thought that it was smoke, but it moved with purpose and it was able to smash one of the glow sticks.”
“And it’s coming this way?” Mandy asked.
“Maybe,” Brad said. “I honestly don’t know if it was chasing us, but I can say that it frightened me, badly.”
“Yes,” Romie said, like she was verifying a fact. “There’s something malevolent about that thing. I want to guess that it has something to do with why Pam and Kevin aren’t here.”
“Something happened to them?” Mandy asked. She looked like she was going to bolt for the staircase to run into the dark after Kevin. “You’re sure?”
“No,” Brad said. “We’re not sure of anything. Listen, we just want to get through the next ten minutes, okay?”
“We should get out of here,” Dave said.
“Not without Kevin and Pam,” Mandy said.
“And George,” Debbie added.
Romie took control. “Glow sticks. Circle. Kids inside. Got it?”
People moved to obey.
They waited out the ten minutes, and then another five minutes more. They didn’t hear a sound except for when Harold, Pam’s little boy, asked for his mother.
“How long are we going to stand here?” Dave asked.
“Please,” Brad said. “The fact that we’ve been safe here is a good sign. Maybe with all of us together and all of these lights, we’ll be safe.”
“We’re going to stand here until dawn, when Kevin and Pam may need our help?” Mandy asked.
“Did you go up to the watchtower?” Debbie asked. “That’s where they were headed, right?”
They were standing shoulder to shoulder in a circle, all eyes looking out into the dark so they could protect the children inside. Only a few people—Mandy, Debbie, and Dave, were talking. The others sometimes mumbled their agreement, but seemed unwilling to advance their own opinions.
“We didn’t make it that far,” Romie said.
“Well, maybe someone should,” Dave said.
It only took a second for the idea
to take root.
“I’m going,” Mandy said. “Kevin would do the same of any of us.”
“I know, Mandy,” Brad said. “I’ll come with you.”
“No,” she said immediately. There was no kindness in her voice. “Brad, honestly, I will be moving quickly. I’m going to go alone.”
“Not alone,” Romie said. “Please don’t go alone.”
“Who’s coming with me then?” Mandy asked. She stepped away from the circle and turned to face them. Brad didn’t see any other eyes lifted to meet hers.
“Mandy, I know I’m slow, but I will come with you,” Brad said. He glanced at Romie, but she was looking at the kids in the center of the circle. It was understandable—not just from Romie, but from all of them. They were choosing to protect the children. The children were the group’s greatest asset and there was nothing more important. Kevin had known that when he left.
“I’m not waiting for you,” she said. She turned and proved the point by climbing the stairs.
Brad sucked up the pain one more time and went to follow.
“Brad,” Romie said.
He turned to see if she had changed her mind. She hadn’t, but she was pointing at something leaning against the wall. It was a cane. He thanked her and grabbed it.
As it turned out, she did wait for him, at least until they got to the hallway. His cane was making a squeaking noise every time he pressed the tip of it down to the floor. Mandy looked back and he saw irritation on her face in the light from the glow stick.
“What do you think?” she asked, holding up the stick. “Light or none?”
“Honestly…” he started to say.
She dropped the stick before he could finish the thought. It stood sentinel on the floor, at the top of the stairs that led down to the locker room. It was a good idea, Brad decided. They would have something to head toward on their way back.
When she took off down the hall, he realized that she was done letting him keep up. He watched her pause at the end of the hall, wondering why she even had a decision to make. The stairs up to the watchtower were to the right—that’s where she should be headed.