Succinct (Extinct Book 5)

by Ike Hamill

  Charlie took a moment to process. The whisper that came back was slow with big pauses between the words. “It’s… too… dangerous.”

  “Maybe,” Robby said. “Maybe the danger has been overblown. Maybe we’re not being told the whole truth.”

  “Truth,” the hissing echoed.

  “It’s also possible that we would rather face legitimate danger than the games that you’re playing,” Robby said. He sounded confident and determined. Brad believed that he meant what he was saying.

  It was possible that Charlie believed it as well. The lights in the stairwell came on.

  “Thank you,” Robby said.

  There was another long pause. Brad opened his mouth to fill the silence, but Robby held up a finger for him to wait.

  Finally, the voice whispered, “You can’t leave me alone with her.”

  Robby’s eyebrows went up.

  Chapter 102: Lisa

  Lisa was startled awake by the feeling that she was falling. When she sat up in the tent, it didn’t take her long to discover why. Her feet were twisted up in a short section of rope. Feeling with her hands, she found that the rope was tied loosely around one ankle. It traveled under her open sleeping bag and over to Ashley’s ankle. The young woman woke up when Lisa pulled on the rope.

  “Is it morning?” Ashley asked with a scratchy voice.

  Lisa blinked at the walls of the tent. They were starting to glow from the rising sun.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Lisa said. She untied herself. The song rose to her throat again. It comforted her to hum it, so she did. With the humming, her irritation subsided. Ashley hadn’t tied her up to be mean—the young woman was only trying to look out for her.

  “That song again,” Ashley said. Then, a second later, “I like it.”

  Lisa smiled. She unzipped the tent and saw that Tim and Penny were already up. He was kicking dirt over the bones of their fire pit. Penny was sniffing around the tent.

  “No breakfast?” Lisa asked, looking at the fire.

  “I thought maybe we could eat while we hike. I have those nuts and we can open another can,” Tim said.

  Lisa nodded. She went off into the woods for some privacy. Thinking of Ashley, Lisa took care of business quickly and came back to the camp. Sure enough, Ashley was standing by the tent, waiting for her to return. As soon as she saw Lisa, she made herself busy striking the tent.

  “Tim wants to get going quickly,” Ashley said.

  “He mentioned.”

  “We think maybe we can reach the river before noon.”

  Lisa only nodded. The song came back to her. She was able to smile again once she started humming. Soon, Ashley joined her, picking up the tune.

  Once more, they were experts at packing their bags and hitting the road. The skill had attenuated slightly during the time at the observatory, but it was back now. Lisa realized that her legs only really felt normal when they were propelling her forward. She wondered if she had lost the knack of staying in one place.

  Somewhere ahead of them, at the end of a long road, they were moving toward home. Lisa wondered if it would still feel like home when they got there. When she had been a little girl, she had gone to summer camp each year. Returning home from camp had been a glorious warm glow, starting in her belly and lighting up every cell of her body. She could remember sitting on the bus that took her home, feeling the excitement mix with contentment and pure happiness. Then, back at home, wrapped in the comfort of her own room, being at home had returned quickly to normalcy. Eventually, as she outgrew summer camp and started taking summer jobs, her home had become a prison. Returning there meant giving up her sovereignty.

  “Lisa?” Ashley asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “You stopped humming.”

  “Oh,” Lisa said. Their feet had settled into a rhythm. The marching had become its own song. Tim stepped over a downed log. It marked the end of the road. On the other side, they would be following a narrow path.

  “Are you excited to get back to the Outpost?” Lisa asked.

  “Hopeful,” Ashley said. “I don’t know if I would call it excited.”

  “It’s bad luck,” Tim said. “I’m not superstitious, but I think it’s bad luck to make any assumptions.”

  “A true pessimist is never disappointed,” Lisa said.

  Tim laughed at that. Stepping over the log, Lisa felt her mood began to lift. It really did feel like they were on the last leg of the journey now. She turned back, almost sad to leave the slog behind.

  Lisa pictured herself back in Gladstone, waking to the sound of the kids running down the stairs. In the summer time, they woke with the dawn and often beat her down to the kitchen. She preferred to be waiting for them—to make sure that they chose something good for breakfast instead of just filling up on fruit. It might give them a burst of energy, but they would be starving before they got to lunch.

  “Aunt Lisa?” Ashley asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you okay?”

  Lisa realized that she was standing there, still holding onto one of the branches of the downed tree.

  “Tim thinks that maybe we’ll be able to see something over the next hill.”

  “Oh?”

  Lisa realized that Tim had almost disappeared down the winding path. She wondered how long she had been standing there.

  “Keep moving. You want to hum that song again?”

  “No,” Lisa said. “I’m good. I was just thinking about home.”

  “The idea of seeing everyone again,” Ashley said, “is almost too much to wish for.”

  “It’s not only the people. They’re the biggest part of it, sure, but it’s not just them.”

  “How so?”

  “There’s something about a place that you’ve invested yourself in. No, that’s not right either. There’s something about a place that you’ve fixed in your imagination, even if you’re not invested in it. I’m tired of being a nomad. My legs aren’t nearly as tired as my spirit.”

  Ashley took her arm and walked alongside her. Lisa didn’t need the physical support, but she was still glad to have Ashley leading her along. What she had lost in enthusiasm and stamina, the young woman was overflowing with. At the top of the hill, Tim was standing. Just beyond him, the pink sky opened up. Lisa knew that the terrain had to fall away from that position before they even crested the hill. She had no way to guess how beautiful it would be to see the way the morning sun reflected off the sparkling water in the valley below.

  “It’s so pretty,” Ashley said.

  Penny barked, apparently agreeing. Pulling Lisa along by the hand, Ashley began to descend. Tim laughed again and followed.

  Each step downward brought them into thicker and thicker forest. The hill behind them disappeared. The sun rose overhead but was obscured by the branches overhead. Penny led the way. She alone seemed to have an unerring idea of which way they should go.

  Ashley, Lisa, and Tim walked single file and close enough that if Ashley stopped, the two of them would run into her. They didn’t break for food or water. They had a silent agreement that nothing would stop them until they reached the river.

  “I see it,” Ashley said.

  Lisa didn’t believe her. It was the third time that Ashley had made that announcement. The first two exclamations had been retracted eventually. The first time she thought she had seen the water, it had just been a flower. The second time had turned out to be a line of sap running down a tree trunk. The sun reflecting off of it had somehow confused Ashley.

  “Seriously. Don’t you see?”

  “Uh huh. Just keep walking.”

  Ashley disobeyed. Instead of marching on steadily, the young woman ran ahead. Lisa sighed.

  “You’re going to twist your ankle, or…”

  Lisa trailed off as she finally saw what Ashley was running toward. It wasn’t just a sparkling through the leaves, it was a sound. They could hear the sound of water rolling over rocks. It wasn’t like the ri
ver they had been on before. This one was a gentle stream or creek. Lisa picked up her pace and smiled as Tim sighed and then gasped behind her.

  “Is that?” Tim asked.

  Ashley was laughing.

  Lisa ran. Her backpack threatened to tip her forward. She could imagine catching her toe on a vine and crashing her ancient body against some rock and smashing into a thousand pieces. She didn’t care.

  When her arms parted the last limbs and she spilled down the drop into the creek, she remembered coming home on the bus from summer camp. She remembered how it felt when the final bell rang and school was out for summer. She remembered waking up on Christmas morning. Her heart beat so hard that she could hear the blood rushing in her ears.

  Tim burst through the trees and wore a smile so big that she could see every one of his teeth.

  Penny splashed in tight circles, chasing her tail. Ashley bent and lifted hands full of water and tossed them into the air. Lisa hugged herself and took a breath so deep that it made her chest ache.

  “This is it,” Tim said. “I guarantee that this is it.” He patted himself down until his hand found what it was looking for. Digging in his pocket, he brought out a flashlight. He stared into the barrel, clicking it on and off, and was disappointed for a moment. Then, he splashed to the opposite bank and churned his feet up the grass until he gained some altitude on the other side. His laugh burst from him and he turned the flashlight toward Lisa. She could barely see it in the daylight, but it looked like the thing was really working.

  “Power is back. It works over here,” he said.

  He shielded his eyes and looked up toward the sun.

  “We should be able to…” Tim turned and looked around.

  Ashley was staring up at him with an open mouth. Blinking several times, Ashley seemed to be trying to remember something. She started slowly for the bank and picked up speed as she went.

  “Yeah. Yes. We should…” Ashley said. She waved for Lisa, who still hadn’t figured out what they were talking about.

  Lisa took one last look at the jungle, recognizing it now for what it was. This looked like the same strange foliage that was growing on the other side of the river from the Outpost. Walking down from the hill, they had traversed through firs, deciduous trees, and then down into the jungle-like morass that they had slogged through at the start of their journey. It had happened quickly on the way back, but they had moved through the same stages.

  Through those branches, between the leaves and away from the river, her song was still playing. Lisa knew that she would have a home there, if she went back to it. The jungle would take her back without question or apology. It would welcome her with its leafy green arms and envelop her in its damp embrace. The idea drew her and she actually took half of a step in that direction.

  Ashley was getting ready to call her—Lisa knew that. She could hear it as clearly as if Ashley had actually formed the words.

  With a sad smile, Lisa turned her back on the jungle. She turned toward Penny, Tim, and Ashley, who were all now standing on the bank, looking at her.

  It was easier going once her feet started moving. Her shoes, socks, and the cuffs of her pants were wet, but they would dry out eventually. The sun was hot, but there would be shade eventually.

  They reached down to her and helped her climb. She slipped once and then toughed her way up the bank and beyond Ashley and Tim. She climbed ahead and was the first to see the tower of the town hall in the distance. When they joined her, she pointed it out.

  “We’re back,” Tim said.

  “Not quite,” Ashley said. “Close, but not quite.”

  “How do you mean?” Tim asked.

  Ashley didn’t respond. She and Penny led the way. As they left the riverbank, the grass gave way to bushes that grabbed and pulled as Lisa tried to push through. Finally, they spilled onto the broken pavement of an overgrown road. In the center, the going was easy and Ashley stayed on it even when it veered away from their goal.

  As they drew closer, Penny and Tim raced ahead. Ashley lingered back with Lisa, making her uncomfortable.

  “Just go,” Lisa said under her breath.

  “Huh? No, I’m good.”

  Lisa was irritated that Ashley didn’t trust her to keep going. Maybe there was cause, but that was beside the point. Ashley pushed aside a low limb and waited for Lisa to go through. Lisa stopped abruptly when she saw Tim. He was standing with slumped shoulders, gently swaying like a tall tree. A breath of air could have knocked him over.

  “Tim?” Lisa asked.

  The branch smacked into her face as Ashley ducked around to see what she was looking at.

  “Tim?” Ashley repeated. She sprinted toward the man. Lisa’s eyes drifted upwards, extrapolating based on the tilt of Tim’s head. She saw what he saw. The roof of the town hall, up near the tower, had caved in. Several of the slate tiles were missing—they must have fallen—and the water had eroded and rotted the wood below. The slow decay had carved a big hole in the roof. She had seen that decay before, but only on uninhabited buildings.

  As her eyes drifted down, Lisa saw the broken windows and the door that stood slightly ajar.

  Lisa rushed to catch up, thinking about the effortless way that Ashley had sprinted to Tim. They had hiked the same miles but Ashley could still manage a burst of speed that was forever lost to Lisa.

  “Guys?” Lisa asked. “Are you going to see what happened?”

  Their paralysis didn’t break until Lisa moved around them and began walking toward the steps that led up to the path.

  As Lisa climbed, she saw what was keeping the door ajar. Somehow, she kept her feet moving toward the skeletal hand that was reaching through the gap. She paused for a moment at the top of the stairs, dropping her heavy pack and looking down at the bleached bones.

  Ashley was behind her.

  “Who is it?” Ashley asked.

  Lisa glanced back, raising her eyebrows.

  “I mean, who do you think it was?”

  Lisa reached her toe forward and tried to open the door. The bones moved and Lisa raised a startled hand before she realized what must have happened. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she reached forward and pressed on the door until it jarred loose from the remains. Ashley was right at her back as she pushed into the foyer.

  Inside, out of the sun, the remains were draped with rags of old clothes and still had some mummified skin stretched across them in places.

  At first, she thought the white powder everywhere was ash. The fire extinguisher was half-covered by the stuff.

  “Another one,” Ashley said, pointing.

  Lisa looked and saw another mummy, sitting in a corner of the next room.

  Tim came in while Penny sniffed at the bones on the floor.

  “How long have we been gone?” he asked.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Ashley said. “Weeks? Months?”

  “That’s Dianne,” Tim said.

  Lisa spun to see what he was referring to and was shocked to see that he was pointing down at the corpse.

  “No,” Lisa said. “That’s impossible.”

  “Her shirt,” Tim said. “And that hair.”

  He was referring to a nest of hair, trailing away from the skull and still attached to leathery skin in places.

  “We should search the place,” Ashley said, stepping over the rib cage. Lisa let her take the lead.

  When they emerged from the building, Tim was sitting on the stone stairs, looking down at his feet.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “Three bodies, in total,” Lisa said. “There were plenty of ways for animals to get in, but no sign that any of the bodies have been…”

  She stopped—the words she might use felt disrespectful.

  “I wanted to go search the rest of the buildings, but I thought I should wait for you,” Tim said.

  Lisa nodded.

  Ashley and Penny came out through the door.

  “They had to have gone so
mewhere,” Ashley said. “If they were all here, we would have found them, right?

  Tim waved a dismissive hand. “They’re probably all in the other buildings, just like Dianne and the others. While we were hiking around, the same madness swept through here. We could have warned them.”

  “Warned them to do what?” Lisa asked. “Tim, this couldn’t have been helped.”

  He stood up, dismissing her comfort.

  Lisa picked up her pack again and slung it over a sore shoulder. The three of them returned to what they were best at—they hiked. The other buildings of the Outpost had a familiar feeling to them. The people who had lived there had vanished, leaving furnished homes and set tables. The doors of their houses were open to the elements. The only difference that Lisa could see was that these people had taken things with them. Clothes were strewn in bedrooms and pantries had been raided.

  Tim stood in front of the house that he had lived in.

  “There was usually a truck parked here. They went somewhere,” he said.

  “Are there any finished basements or underground storage?” Ashley asked.

  “One of the buildings near the south garden has a pretty big root cellar,” Tim said. “It’s one of the places we store food.”

  Picking up their packs again, they set off on foot. Lisa realized that her mental picture of the place was shifting. She held in her head a map of all the settlements. They were islands in a sea of disintegrating ruins. The spark of life was keeping a few places lit and pushing out against the darkness that was always trying to creep in. Now, the Outpost had gone the way of chaos. Their farthest seed of civilization was gone.

  “Oh, wow,” Tim said as they came around the side of the building.

  Several of the high fences around the south garden had been toppled. Once tall enough to discourage deer, the wall had fallen. The chaos of nature had flooded in and eradicated the order that had once reigned inside.

  Somehow, the sight was worse than the empty, toppling buildings. The destruction of the garden meant that the place could no longer support life. If everyone moved back, they would starve without a harvest.