Succinct (Extinct Book 5)

by Ike Hamill

  Lisa caught her breath.

  Somehow, Ashley scrambled backwards with the end of the rope, just before Tim could reach her. He gathered speed, chasing her for a few paces before he slowed down again.

  “Come on, Tim. Come back this way,” Lisa yelled. It didn’t work at all. Like before, Tim was captivated by the rope, now that he had something to grab. It was looped around him, but he was still trying to follow it. Before he could unwind himself, Ashley tossed the loops of rope toward Lisa again.

  When Lisa pulled it, the rope was beginning to constrict Tim’s arms. She moved quickly, flicking most of the bundle back to Ashley.

  The girl was fast. Once she got the end, Ashley ran around Tim, winding him up like a maypole. With her second loop, the rope pulled tight and his arms were captured. Ashley took an even bigger risk and ran at his back. Lisa didn’t understand what was happening until Ashley pushed the free end of the rope down through the loops and she pulled it tight.

  Now, they really had something to pull against.

  Tim stumbled forward to keep his balance as Ashley pulled on the rope, pinning his arms to his sides.

  His hands were still free. When Ashley ran forward to finish her noose around Tim, he managed to grab her shirt and pulled her close.

  Lisa ran forward to pull him back, just as his teeth snapped together. He was trying to bite Ashley’s throat, and he had nearly done it.

  Ashley managed to jerk her shirt free and danced back from Tim. She had him on a leash now. Lisa maneuvered around him and joined as she walked back toward the cart.

  Lisa watched Ashley secure the rope to the bumper as Tim continued to lumber forward. The two of them got in the cart. Penny sat in the rear seat and looked back at Tim with sad eyes.

  “So, we just march him along until he collapses from exhaustion?” Lisa asked.

  “I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that,” Ashley said.

  Lisa raised her eyebrows.

  “There’s a chance that he snaps out of it.”

  Lisa’s ankle was aching after a few minutes. An hour into driving the cart, and her foot was numb. Trying to maintain a speed where Tim could stay on his feet but not catch them was exhausting.

  Ashley looked back at him.

  “I don’t think he’s going to snap out of it,” Ashley said. “You want me to drive?”

  “No. I’m okay for now. You need to eat something. You don’t look so good.”

  “I’m just worried about him.”

  “Leave that to Penny. She’s worried enough for all of us.”

  At one point, Ashley had added another length of rope so they could put a little more distance between themselves and Tim. It didn’t work. When he got too far away, he stopped moving forward. The lasso had toppled him. Watching him trying to get back to his feet without using his arms was torture. In the end, they had to both get out and stand him back up while they dodged his snapping jaws.

  “Maybe we should put a bag over his head and completely tie him up,” Ashley said. “Then we could put him in the back seat.”

  Lisa shook her head. “At least this way we know that he’s still relatively lively. Also, we’re going to have to sleep at some point. I’m hoping that the walking will wear him out.”

  Ashley sighed again.

  “Hey, look at the bright side. None of us are dead and we made it beyond when you thought we would die, right?” Lisa asked.

  “I guess. I got used to knowing what was going to happen. Not knowing is unsettling,” Ashley said.

  Lisa laughed. “Welcome back to reality. Hand me some of that juice, will you?”

  Ashley climbed in back and came back with a bottle of juice. It was from the vending machine back at the observatory. At first, they had all abstained from drinking it. The expiration date on the stuff hadn’t made any sense at all. Eventually, while they were sitting on the deck one evening, Tim had taken a chance and declared it delicious. Lisa had gotten addicted to the stuff. It reminded her of the cider that Romie sometimes made with the apples that were too bruised to store.

  In the sun, driving at an impossibly slow speed, the sweet juice washed through her. It revived her and soothed her throat.

  She exhaled and smiled. “That’s so good.”

  “Slow down a little,” Ashley said.

  Lisa glanced back. Ashley had another bottle of the stuff and she was climbing into the rear of the cart. Nodding, Lisa understood. She slowed until Tim was able to nearly catch up with the cart. Holding onto the canopy, Ashley leaned back and pushed the bottle to his lips.

  “Is it working?” Lisa called.

  “He’s just trying to bite it. Wait a sec—yeah, he’s drinking. I think he likes it.”

  Tim moaned. The sound was almost a word.

  “Aunt Lisa, Stop!” Ashley called.

  “Why?”

  “Just stop.”

  Lisa did. When she jumped out from behind the wheel, she wanted to make sure that Ashley wasn’t going to do something foolish. Her numb foot lit up with pins and needles. Lisa had to grab the cart so she wouldn’t fall over.

  That time gave Ashley a chance to do something stupid. A second later, Ashley was giggling.

  “What are you…” Lisa asked, forcing her foot to work. She limped around the back of the cart and found Ashley dribbling the juice from the bottle. Tim had his face turned toward the sky and was licking and biting at the juice as it fell.

  “Ashley, stop it,” Lisa said. It seemed like Ashley was teasing Tim.

  “No, he likes it.”

  “Ashley!”

  Ashley was shocked by Lisa’s tone and she pulled back. When she turned to Lisa, she completely took her attention away from Tim. Fear drove a cold spike into Lisa’s heart. When Tim opened his mouth, Lisa was sure that he would lurch forward and bite into Ashley.

  Instead, Tim spoke.

  “Please? More?”

  “See?” Ashley said. She held the bottle out again and poured more juice into Tim’s mouth. “He likes it.”

  Lisa looked at his hands. He was close enough, but he wasn’t reaching out, trying to grab her. He could have jumped and bitten her fingers or her arm, but he was staying perfectly still, drinking what she poured. His eyes closed and Lisa’s mouth fell open. For the first time in hours and hours, he really looked like Tim again.

  Penny jumped down from the rear seat and approached him carefully. The tip of her tail was tentatively wagging as she sniffed from a distance.

  “Tim?” Lisa asked.

  His eyes opened and he swallowed again, closing his mouth.

  “Drink more,” Ashley said.

  “Give him a little break,” Lisa said. “He might need a second.”

  Tim nodded.

  They waited in silence. Lisa wanted to ask him if he was himself. She wanted to find out if reason had really returned to him, but she was also afraid to speak. Sanity was fragile, and Tim hadn’t possessed any of it for quite a while. The last thing she wanted to do was shatter the moment with questions.

  Ashley moved the bottle forward again and Tim’s hands strained against the rope as he tried to reach for it.

  He opened his mouth and she put the lip of the bottle to his lips. He drank a couple of gulps and she pulled it back.

  “Thank you,” he said. He blinked and shook his head very slowly. “Thank you.”

  “Is this juice magic?” Ashley asked, looking at the bottle.

  “No,” Tim said with a big exhale of breath.

  Lisa waited for him to elaborate, but that’s all he said on the matter.

  Penny finally got close enough to put her nose against his hand. He tried to pet her and she licked his fingers. Tim gave her a sad smile.

  “Missed you,” he said to the dog.

  “Can you get in?” Ashley asked him. “I feel like we should keep moving.”

  He shook his head and said, “Let me walk. Just a bit more.”

  Lisa nodded. She wasn’t quite sure of his motivation, but s
he agreed completely. He was sane for now, but it remained to be seen how long that would last.

  Chapter 96: Janelle

  “How mad do you think he is?” Jim asked.

  Janelle put her finger to her lips to tell him to shut up. Their father was just outside the room, in the hallway. He was talking to someone, but he might also be listening.

  In a way, the scariest thing was how unsure Jim seemed to be. Usually when their father got mad, Jim was the one that Janelle and Ashley would turn to. He always had a pretty good idea of the depth of the anger and he could fairly accurately predict what the punishment would be. Now that Jim was unsure, Janelle could only fear the worst.

  “The problem is that we don’t have anyone else,” Jim whispered.

  Janelle nodded. Without Brad, Lisa, or Romie, there was nobody that their father could consult with about their behavior.

  Their father came in and waved the door shut. He stood there, hands on his hips, looking at them.

  “Dad?” Jim said. “You have to admit that it was a freak occurrence.”

  “No, Jim,” Janelle whispered.

  Her brother ignored her.

  “Sometimes dangerous, random things happen and there’s no way to control for that. You’ve always told us that when a bad random thing happens, we should learn from it and move on.”

  Their father frowned.

  “And everyone is okay—nothing bad happened.”

  “No,” Janelle said with a sigh. She put her hand over her eyes and looked down.

  “Oh, Jim,” their father said.

  “What?” Jim asked. He knew he had said something wrong, but he still hadn’t figured out what.

  Janelle whispered to him, “Because nothing bad happened, Dad is going to think that we didn’t have the right outcome to learn our lesson. That means he has to punish us more.”

  “Oh,” Jim said.

  Their father nodded. “Your sister is right. Consequences are how we learn to be careful.”

  Their dad moved to the bathroom and she heard the water running.

  Her brother sighed and whispered, “We were trying to help.”

  Janelle put her finger to her lips again.

  They waited in silence for their father to dry his hands and come back into the room, wiping his hands with a towel.

  “I need to know you’ve both learned from this incident,” he said. “I’ve been too cavalier with you guys and I’ve forgotten that you’re too young and inexperienced to know how dangerous the world can be.”

  “We were nearly frightened to death by the mountain lion,” Janelle said.

  Her father considered that and nodded. “I imagine you were.”

  “Dad, you know, the problem is that all the adults are always looking at everything like it’s life and death,” Jim said.

  Janelle raised her eyebrows and stared at her brother. She wanted to tell him to shut up, but she was so stunned that she couldn’t say anything.

  “You try not to talk about the times that everything almost ended, but it’s behind everything you say. There’s always a message, just under the surface, that our lives are only hanging on by a thread and that sometimes you have to risk everything in order to survive.”

  Robby started shaking his head. “Jim, that’s the way it was. We’re trying to build a stable life.”

  “A stable life doesn’t mean running into a strange abandoned bunker, does it? It’s clear that people aren’t finished fighting to survive, right?”

  “I don’t know what point you’re making. Yes, the world remains a dangerous place. That’s a good argument for you to follow my rules because my rules are designed to keep you safe.”

  “But sometimes it’s impossible to be safe and survive,” Jim said.

  Janelle understood where he was going with his argument. It wouldn’t work, but she understood it. It was clear that her father was jumping to the same conclusion as well.

  “Jim, it’s a matter of risk versus reward. You knew that I had a plan to fix the electrical issue. I have more experience than you do about these things and I had carefully considered all the paths and decided which one would be best to take.”

  “What about the blizzard?” Jim asked.

  “Sorry?” their father asked.

  “You remember that time that Aunt Lisa had that cut that was getting infected and you went out into the blizzard so you could get that medicine for her?”

  “Of course.”

  “She told you not to go. She told you that it wasn’t going to be a problem and that it could wait. She was doing the math and deciding that your life was more important than her infection, and she had decided that going out into the blizzard was a risk to your life.”

  “She wasn’t in the best position to decide,” their father said. “She’s always very optimistic about her own ability to heal.”

  “And she couldn’t stand the thought of you going out into the snow for her,” Jim said. “I remember what you said after. You said…”

  Their father finished for him. “You couldn’t ask me to take the risk, and I couldn’t convince you that the risk was low enough to take.”

  “Right,” Jim said. “Janelle and I understood the risk in a way that you couldn’t. And, therefore, it was our decision to make.”

  “For salad,” their father said.

  “Huh?”

  “We have enough food. We might want to take some vitamins to supplement, but we have those too. The only reason to get the inverter was so that we could conveniently grow a luxury crop.”

  “Well…” Jim started.

  “And, further, if we really value growing vegetables that much, we can modify the equipment to run at twelve volts. It’s not as easy, but it’s doable.”

  Jim shook his head. “It’s way easier with the inverter.”

  “And there are stronger, faster, more capable people who we would have sent out if we absolutely needed the inverter.”

  “Nobody else was going though.”

  “Not yet, Jim. Not yet. If I had failed to convert the lights and pumps, maybe they would have. They didn’t have the chance to make the decision because you and your sister ran off.”

  Jim glanced at Janelle. She knew what he was thinking—he could easily throw the blame to her. The mission had pretty much been her idea.

  She was surprised when he didn’t say a word.

  “Twenty hours,” their father said.

  “Twenty hours of what?” Jim asked.

  “You’re not leaving this room for twenty hours. That’s your punishment. I’m glad that neither one of you got eaten by the mountain lion. I’m thrilled that nobody else got killed because of your adventure. I think that the boredom you’ll suffer from twenty hours in this room will reinforce my point.”

  He raised his voice and told them his point.

  “You’re not allowed to risk your lives without permission.”

  He left.

  When Jim went to the door, he found that their father had somehow locked it. It wouldn’t open no matter how many times Jim swiped at it. In the bathroom, Jim tried to activate the control panel, thinking that he could figure out a way to disable the system.

  “Just take the punishment,” Janelle said.

  “I’m not going to leave. I just want to know how he disabled the door.”

  Jim was frustrated to find out that their father had somehow disabled the control panel as well.

  “I’m hungry,” Jim said. He was rocking back and forth on the bed, driving her crazy.

  Janelle moved over to the chair and tried to block him out so she could concentrate on her book. She turned back a page and had to read it again. The mutineers had taken the seized ship to a tiny island. A team had been sent to shore to see if there were any natives who wanted to trade. The team hadn’t come back and people still aboard the ship were beginning to fear the worst.

  “Let’s play a game,” Jim said.

  “There’s nothing to play. Why don’t you t
ry to sleep?”

  “I can’t,” he said.

  “Then take a shower.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  They both looked up when the door opened. Their father came in, carrying a tray.

  “Has it been twenty hours?” Jim asked.

  Their father smiled and shook his head.

  “It has barely been four hours. I brought you some food.”

  “Whatever,” Jim said.

  Her father set the tray down on the bureau and brought her a bowl. Handing it to her, he took the book from her hands. She glanced down at the soup and then eyed her father carefully as he tucked the book into his back pocket.

  “I’m not done with that,” she said.

  “The point of this exercise is to make you bored enough that you meditate on the nature of risk and safety,” he said. “The book was an oversight.”

  Janelle closed her eyes and sighed, cursing herself for not hiding it. She remembered that there was another book stashed in her bag. The bag was under the bed. When she opened her eyes again, she was careful to look at nothing but the soup. If she even glanced at the bed she was afraid that…

  “Aha,” her father said, dropping to one knee. He pulled out the bag and pawed through it until he found her book. He put that one in his other pocket as he stood back up.

  “I’ll be back. Eat your soup.”

  “Whatever,” Jim said, folding his arms.

  Their father left.

  Janelle blew on the soup and then took a sip. By the color and texture, she had guessed that it was squash. The ginger in there was a nice surprise. For a moment, she thought that Jim might be petty enough to go hungry. If he did, she might have some of his as well. It seemed like everyone could read her mind. Jim looked at her with suspicion and then got up to fetch his bowl of soup.

  He took a few angry sips and then declared that it was, “Garbage.”

  Still, he finished it.

  Janelle put her bowl back on the tray and then returned to the chair. She sat sideways with her legs over the arm. It wasn’t as comfortable as Romie’s big recliner at home, but it would do. She closed her eyes and tried to clear out her head so maybe she could fall asleep.

  The way that Jim was scraping and rattling his spoon in his bowl, she knew that he didn’t want to let her fall asleep. If he was going to be miserable, he wanted her to be too.