by Matt Hilton
Patricia kept her gaze averted. Through her teeth she mumbled, ‘They should be punished.’
‘That’s right, they should be punished,’ Eldon said. He grasped Patricia harder, almost dragging her across his unconscious wife. ‘How would you punish them, Patty? What would Randy do to you if you were disobedient?’
‘He’d punish me bad, Eldon,’ Patricia muttered.
‘That’s right. And what if you hurt his mother?’
‘Then he’d probably kill me.’
‘He sure would. Randy knows how to treat his woman, right, and I damn well believe if Darrell had himself a wife, she’d know who was boss too. Caleb, you’ve been far too soft with that woman of yours, and now look at where that’s gotten us.’ Eldon released Patricia, who cowered away and returned to helping Ellie-May, doing her best to avoid Eldon’s attention again. The patriarch stomped towards his eldest son. His mustache bristled, and droplets of saliva rained on Caleb’s face. ‘When you get your hands on Elspeth, I expect her to be stripped naked and whipped from one end of the town square to the other.’
‘After the hateful shit she’s put in Jacob’s mind, and for what she did to my mother, trust me, Pa, she’ll suffer much worse than that.’
‘What’s this hateful shit you’re talking about?’
Caleb gritted his teeth. He looked from his father to Darrell, and lastly to Ellie-May. These were his folk, his real family, while Elspeth meant nothing to him now. Before now he’d shown her some leniency as the mother of his child, but if what Jacob said was true, then he owed her nothing. He gave his father a fierce grimace. ‘Let’s say there was once a time when wives were put to death for less.’
Eldon returned the fierce grin. ‘Now you’re talking my kind of language, son.’
THIRTY-FOUR
Po dropped to his haunches, raising one fist skyward. None of the three had served in the military, but through its usage in movies and TV shows the signal had become recognizable. In equal measures to Tess it meant ‘stop’ and ‘be quiet’. She did both. Behind her Pinky also came to a halt, and he went one act further by dousing his lantern. Tess took her prompt from Po, also sinking down so that she presented a smaller silhouette in among the tree roots. Pinky pressed up against the bole of a tree. Here the forest was cultivated, and the trees grew in regulated lines, making finding concealment more difficult.
It was unnecessary asking what had alarmed Po. Tess could hear. Some distance ahead a vehicle drove at speed through the forest, probably carrying a bunch of armed rednecks intent on cutting off their route. To their east she could hear the yapping of dogs. Those that had found their GMC and followed them across the river must have discovered that they had entered the private land by now and were somehow coordinating a welcoming committee with their neighbors. This was not the time to waste crouching in the woods; every second should be spent penetrating further into the commune if ever they were going to find Elspeth and Jacob.
‘What’s wrong?’ she whispered.
Po’s posture was one of a stalking cat. He lowered his fist, and without turning to her said, ‘I hear somebody up ahead.’
She couldn’t hear anything beyond the sound of the far-off engine, and the more distant pack of hounds. Actually, her senses had grown more attuned with her surroundings, so as she concentrated, that was not the entire truth. She could define the breeze in the treetops, and the creaking of branches, the cry of a night flying bird. Also she could hear the whistle of Pinky’s exhalations behind her. Po once told her that if she centered herself, opened her mouth in an oval and closed her eyes, she would hear better: it was true, as she had tried his woodsman’s technique on previous occasions and found it worked, but she daren’t close her eyes just then. She leant forward, peering between the regimented trunks into the dimness and she caught a hint of movement. It was a shadow against shadows, but it was there. The more she watched, the more moving figures she spotted: they appeared to be spilling upward out of the very earth.
‘They got ahead of us,’ Po whispered. ‘I should’ve seen that comin’ goddamnit.’
It stood to reason that people that had grown up on this land would be intimately familiar with it, and would know all its shortcuts, including the route through the cave system. After discovering where they had crossed the river, the hunting party must have followed them to the crag, but instead of going up and over as they had, they’d taken the shortcut through the hill, under the perimeter fence and gotten ahead of them. From what Tess could tell, they were climbing out of the bowels of the earth by way of a ladder. A couple of them had flashlights that they flicked off now that they had broken ground, but others flashed the beams around seeking their quarry. They could have no idea where their prey had gotten to yet; for all they knew Po and his friends were stuck back at the fence trying to find a safe way over. The hunters conversed briefly, before they split up, with three of them heading back north towards the fence. The others went towards the repurposed military encampment, forming a scrimmage line as they moved through the woods. Tess could tell from their outlines that they carried rifles.
The three men sent to check nearer the perimeter fence took an oblique angle to where Tess crouched. She tensed, with her finger on the trigger guard of her pistol: she was unaware of the exact point at which she’d swapped her flashlight for her gun. Po made a calming gesture with the flat of his hand, watching intently as the trio crept past. Tess tracked their route through the trees with her gun, conscious that Pinky did likewise with his. The trio continued and was soon lost in the darkness. By the time they had disappeared, so had the others who had emerged from the tunnel. Po stood. He worked his ankle, gingerly testing his weight on it before he waved Tess and Pinky to follow.
He took them to the tunnel entrance. If they’d missed the hunting party coming out of it, Tess doubted they would have discovered the tunnel. At ground level a circular concrete base stood barely nine inches above the forest floor, and at its center a hinged trapdoor allowed access. Undergrowth had taken root around the tunnel’s entrance, adding to the trapdoor’s camouflage. They could have passed within feet of it and been unaware of the hatch. They stood around the trapdoor, waiting for somebody to speak. Po said, ‘We can continue through the woods, and risk running into that group again, or go back to my first plan and sneak inside the camp via these tunnels.’
‘I’m still not keen on going down there, me,’ Pinky admitted.
Po opened the trapdoor. A concrete chimney descended into the earth. An iron ladder gave access to the tunnel floor below, as Tess had suspected. She figured that the network of tunnels had been constructed with several ingress points such as this one, as well as with various ventilation shafts. Possibly the military had integrated the natural cave system into their design to assist with the airflow through the tunnels. Pinky gave the ladder a shake of his head: it was narrow and some of the visible rungs were corroded.
‘Nu-uhhh, definitely not keen,’ he stressed.
‘I’ll use the tunnels,’ Po suggested, ‘to complete the search I started earlier. Once I’ve found Elspeth and Jacob we can then work together on getting them safely out.’
‘You’re assuming that they’re being held underground,’ Tess reminded him.
‘I am making an assumption, but only partly. If you were Caleb and had snatched them off the street, where would you hide them? Me, I’d keep them underground where I obviously hide my other secrets.’
There was still the issue of whatever criminal enterprise Eldon Moorcock had going, and Po was correct in that evidence of it was probably hidden underground too. Po had mentioned seeing some kind of bank-style vault during his earlier incursion of Eldon’s bunker …
Tess shoved her pistol in her waistband and took out her cell phone. ‘I’ve enough of a signal to text with; how’s your phone, Pinky?’
He checked. ‘Yeah, I’ve enough juice for a text.’
‘I’m going with Po,’ she said. ‘Do you think you can make it to th
e commune without being seen?’
‘I can go invisible, like a ninja, me,’ he smiled. ‘I’m just not too skilled at fitting through tight spaces.’
‘We might need some form of transportation once we find Elspeth and the boy, how’s about you go about securing us a ride?’ asked Po.
‘Sounds like a plan.’ Pinky looked down into the tunnels again, and then gave Tess a sorrowful shake of his head. ‘I should be going with you guys, but one look at that rusty ladder reminds me of my limitations. Rest assured, though, I’ll be up here, me, waiting for when you come out.’
‘Keep your cell phone close by, and we’ll coordinate with you,’ Tess said as she tucked hers in her breast pocket.
Pinky stared off into the darkness.
Po aimed a finger in the general direction that the scrimmage line had moved off in. ‘The compound’s thataway.’
‘So are those rednecks,’ replied Pinky. ‘Unless you want me to shoot some of them dead, I should maybe take a more circuitous route, eh?’
Po clapped his friend on the shoulder. ‘Just don’t get yourself shot.’
‘Go on,’ Pinky said, and ushered Po back to the trapdoor, ‘I’ll keep an eye out until you’re safely underground. Tess, you’d be better taking this than that little old thing.’
She accepted the wind-up lantern from him. Down in the tunnels it would prove far more helpful than the tiny flashlight she’d used until now. She hooked it over her left elbow, waiting anxiously while Po descended the ladder. If his injured leg gave way, it would tumble him into the depths. She held her breath until he safely reached the tunnel. ‘Be careful,’ she advised Pinky.
‘I’m not the one climbing down into the bowels of Hades,’ he reminded her, then flickered what was supposed to be a reassuring smile.
Tess puffed out her cheeks, leaned close to Pinky and admitted, ‘I wish now I wasn’t so freaking adamant about accompanying Nicolas.’
She was only partially kidding. Before she lost her nerve, she held onto Pinky’s offered hand, and rested a heel on the uppermost rung. It held her weight; the same might not be said for those below. Pinky supported her until her head was at ground level, and she was able to take the rungs in her hands. She clambered down, and felt Po assist her with his hands at her hips for the last few feet. Back on firm ground she peered up the chimney. Pinky craned over the opening above, a deeper silhouette against the night sky. It was probably no more than twenty feet but he looked a mile away. Pinky raised a thumb. Before Tess could answer his gesture, he lowered the trapdoor and they were enveloped in darkness so thick it felt cloying. Tess hurried to juggle on the lantern.
The glow from the lantern danced off the uniform walls.
‘How will we know which way to go?’ Tess asked.
‘The commune’s that way,’ said Po, indicating the tunnel directly ahead. Behind them there was dankness emanating from the tunnel, hinting at the warren of natural caverns it intersected with a little distance behind them.
Tess was aware of their immediate direction of travel; she was more concerned with how they’d orientate themselves once they reached the crisscrossed tunnels he’d described being in earlier. Po aimed his chin at the nearest wall, and she made out a faded number stenciled on the rough concrete.
‘I’d guess those coded numbers give direction and purpose,’ he said. ‘We’ll see once we make more progress, huh? By the time we reach the commune, I hope to have it figured out.’
‘I have the lantern, do you want me to lead the way?’
‘More importantly you have the gun,’ Po said. ‘Take it out, Tess, we don’t know who we might meet down here.’
She drew the pistol and held it by her side. With her left hand she extended the lantern before them and set off walking. Po stayed directly behind, occasionally turning to tread backwards as he checked for signs of pursuit. Down there everything echoed, even the slightest scuff of a shoe or brush of an elbow against a wall was amplified. The glow from the lamp dimmed and she swiftly cranked the handle bringing it back to life: she couldn’t imagine completing the journey if they lost the light she had.
‘How far to the commune?’ she whispered.
‘Further than I’d like,’ he said. ‘It’s roughly a half mile through the woods from here, but I’d bet down in these tunnels it feels ten times that far.’
‘Pinky was upfront about his claustrophobia,’ Tess said. ‘I wish I’d known before now that I have an intense dislike of subterranean tunnels.’
‘You didn’t have any inkling?’
‘There was that time I got trapped down a well, but it was different then. I put my mind to escaping, so I didn’t dwell too long on being trapped. Here, well, I’m finding breathing difficult.’
‘You’re not the only one. I think it has more to do with the stifling atmosphere than with fear. Try taking shallow breaths and we’ll soon reach a place where there’s more oxygen.’
Tess took his advice. Within another twenty paces her face was slick with sweat, and her clothing clung to her. It felt as if she was trying to draw air through damp cotton. Even the walls dripped. The humidity was horrendous.
‘Po,’ she said, ‘I’m not handling this too well.’
He placed a hand on her hip, moving closer to her. ‘Just a little further and things will get better, I promise.’
‘I can barely breathe,’ she said.
‘Drink some water,’ he suggested. ‘It might help.’
She set down the lantern and accepted one of the bottles he’d shoved in his pocket. She chugged down most of the bottle before handing it back.
‘Better?’ he asked, after he’d emptied the bottle.
‘Nope.’
He didn’t reply, choosing instead to keep her moving with gentle pressure on her hip. Tess’s feet were rubbed raw by her wet shoes; she thought it strangely ironic that the first time she’d seen Po with Elspeth and Jacob she’d suffered similarly sore feet, perhaps this was a sign that she’d soon see them together again.
After several turns in direction they came to a junction. A tunnel intersected the first, narrower, and in complete darkness. The tunnel they traversed was a main artery, the other a feeder vein: Tess knew that arteries led direct from the heart. Without checking with Po she continued on the same path. Ahead there was a change in the darkness. The uniformity of the blackness was broken by a faint slash of silver. She glanced back at Po. His features were lit by the glow of her lantern, his eyes sparkling, but the lines and angles of his features were deeply grooved by shadow. He grinned at her, indicating he too had spotted the glow ahead, and he reminded her of a jack-o’-lantern.
The presence of light meant they were approaching an area used by the commune’s residents. Having studied the same maps as Po had, Tess felt she should be able to pinpoint their location, but she was clueless. She had some residual sense of direction and thought they were traversing a west to east artery now, but she could be totally wrong. She should feel some relief that they were nearing their destination, but she couldn’t muster any. At least breathing was a bit easier.
Po halted.
Tess checked with him and found him peering intently into the darkness behind them. She didn’t speak – in there her voice would travel. Besides, she didn’t require clarification. The padding of footsteps had alerted him.
From what she could tell, several people pursued them through the tunnels. A single person, armed with a gun could mow them down while they were trapped between the concrete walls. She quickly doused her lantern so they didn’t present a target. She tugged on Po’s sleeve and he moved with her, aiming for where the darkness lightened ahead. It was probable that their figures were distinguishable against the lighter background, but less so than when limned by the lantern’s glow.
To their right there was an alcove.
Tess pulled Po in after her.
She touched a finger to his lips, unnecessarily as he understood the need for silence. She urged him to lean closer.
‘We can’t outpace them,’ she whispered, ‘and will be easily spotted the further we go. We must wait here and ambush them. Are you ready for that?’
‘Need you ask?’
She held up the pistol and felt him draw his knife from his boot sheath. ‘I won’t shoot unless absolutely necessary. Please don’t kill any of them, Po.’
‘Only if I must,’ he said.
His reply might have given her more confidence if his menacing tone didn’t promise a foregone conclusion.
THIRTY-FIVE
The stench of death repelled her. Elspeth threw her elbow across her face, retching as she turned. With bile in her mouth she ushered Jacob back in the direction they’d just come from.
‘I warned you, Mom.’ Jacob’s eyes shone like silver coins against the gloom.
He was referring to the Booger Hole being home to a cannibalistic monster. It certainly smelled as if the cave was the repository of corpses, whether or not they had been gnawed on by some giant hairy hominid.
‘We can’t go that way,’ Elspeth told him.
Jacob shrugged. He had suspected what they might find. Elspeth bent to the side and cleared her throat. A string of hot saliva dribbled from between her lips.
‘Or can we?’ She peered down the tunnel they had followed this far into the natural cavern. Did going back promise a worse fate than having to endure the stench of decomposition? Yes, the consequences of returning to the bunker outweighed enduring the bad smell tenfold. ‘We have to,’ she decided. ‘Hold your breath until we are past, uh, until we’re past …’
‘Mom, I know it’s a dead person. I’m not a little kid, so you don’t have to hide the truth from me anymore.’
Elspeth squinted at him. His words were loaded.
‘He’s not a good man, but Caleb’s still your daddy, Jacob.’