Intruders (Book 2): The Awakening

by Tracy Sharp

  Rye hid behind a display of mops. The butcher lumbered a few feet in front of him. Rye took a dustpan from the display and hurled it behind the butcher. The man turned to follow the sound. Rye made it to the front of the store, but Daphne wasn’t there.

  “Where are you?” Rye shouted. His voice echoed throughout the store, drawing the attention of the butcher again. The van was less than fifteen feet away, but there was no way he was going to leave Daphne. She was somewhere in the store with the dead butcher. Rye waved his arms. “Over here, you big bastard.”

  A cart filled with canned food raced toward Rye.

  “Put this in the van,” Daphne said, aiming the rifle at the butcher’s head. There was one shot. The butcher’s head exploded like a watermelon dropped from a window.

  “Nice.” Rye opened the back of the van. It was stocked with drinks, chips, and cookies. He tossed all the cans inside.

  “You finished? We have to go,” Daphne said, putting the rifle behind the driver’s seat.

  “You knew that thing was chasing me, didn’t you?” Rye asked.

  “Yep. But I figured you owed me one for earlier. Besides, there was no way in hell I was going to leave those Beanie Weenies.”

  Chapter 4

  “It’s probably not a good idea to have a picnic,” Rye said, scooping cold Beanie Weenies on a potato chip.

  “We’re still alive. Who knows how long that will last? Do you want your last memories to be of being cramped inside a smelly van, eating cold canned food? Doesn’t a little fresh air picnic sound better?”

  “If I’m dead, I don’t think I’ll care about any memories.”

  Daphne crunched on a chip. “Good point. But look, we’ve fought off zombies. We’ve fought off aliens. Let’s live life on our terms, not theirs.”

  “Were you some sort of special ops before this?” Rye asked. “Or maybe CIA?”

  Daphne chuckled. “I was a reporter for a small press paper in Virginia.”

  “Where did this ‘take no shit’ attitude come from?”

  “Before I wrote about cats stuck in trees, I had a pretty hard life. There were times I didn’t think I’d see another sunrise. I learned to appreciate life even at its worst. I’m planning on seeing many more sunrises.”

  Rye scraped the side of the can with a Dorito. “Got any family? A boyfriend? Husband?”

  Daphne cracked the seal on a Gatorade. “I had a stalker ex-boyfriend. I doubt I have to worry about him anymore.” She gulped the drink. “How about you? What’s your story? What did you do before the world turned into a sci-fi horror movie?”

  “I graduated magna cum laude from UNC with a degree in biology about four months ago and moved to an old cabin on my family’s land.”

  “Why?”

  “Two years ago, my father died in a plane crash. He was in Egypt excavating some recently discovered tombs.”

  Daphne interrupted him. “Wait a minute. What’s your last name?”

  “Boone.”

  “Your dad was Jake Boone of that show Mysterious Ways?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I used to have the biggest crush on him. I watched that show every week. Such a tragedy.”

  “Yeah. Anyway, he left me more money than I can ever spend. That pissed my stepmother off. He left her the house and a considerable amount of money. But I guess the bitch wanted all of it. So, after graduation, I decided to go off the grid.”

  “Your dad thought aliens played a big part in ancient Egypt, right? Is that where your fascination with them comes from?”

  Rye tossed the empty can into a bag. “Not really. When I was thirteen or so, I was out late at night with a bunch of my friends. It was a pretty big snowstorm. We were throwing snowballs at cars as they passed. There was this white van. A snowball slammed into the side of it and it stopped. We all scattered into the woods like roaches. Not a minute later, the entire sky lit up brighter than daylight. You could see clear through the woods. And in a flash, it was gone. No one said anything for a few minutes until I looked at my watch. An hour had passed. That wasn’t possible.”

  “So, you think you were abducted?”

  “I know we lost an hour and I’ve never been able to remember it. I researched it on the Net. It’s kind of crazy. My father searched for aliens his entire life. I’m almost positive I had an encounter…and I never told him.”

  Daphne downed the rest of the Gatorade and opened a bag of Fritos. “Did he ever mention these lizard aliens?”

  “No. He mainly kept the alien stuff away from me. It was mostly dinosaurs and ancient Egypt talk.”

  “So, what do we do now, Ryland Boone?”

  “I don’t know, Daphne…” He stopped, realizing he didn’t know Daphne’s last name.

  “Stover.”

  Rye smiled. “I don’t know, Daphne Stover. Maybe we should play a round of mini-golf. It’s not like we have to be anywhere.”

  Daphne wiped Fritos crumbs from her lips. “I’d win. You know that.”

  “All right, then, before you take another swing at my ego, let’s head to my father’s house. I want to see if he had anything there about the lizards.”

  ***

  The gated community north of Lake Norman was no longer secure. A trash truck with the remnants of a gate underneath its tires blocked the entrance.

  “Looks like we’re going to have to walk,” Daphne said.

  “Nonsense. I’m not leaving Sammy here.” Rye opened the door. “I’ll see if the keys are still in the truck. If so, follow me.”

  Rye ran to the trash truck and hopped onto the step under the driver’s door. The keys dangled from the ignition like a shiny pot of gold. He turned and gave a thumbs-up sign to Daphne. Rye drove the truck a few feet, leaving enough room for Daphne. He swiped a pack of Tic Tacs from the dashboard before exiting.

  “My father’s house is on the left, about five houses down.”

  Rye got in the passenger seat and offered a Tic Tac to Daphne. She held out her hand without taking her eyes off the road. She wasn’t offended by the gesture. She knew she needed one or a handful.

  “Right there. The white one.” Rye pointed to a three-story mansion with a circular driveway.

  “You left that for a shack in the woods?” Daphne asked.

  “You’ve never met my stepmother.”

  Daphne brought the van to a stop in the circular driveway. The front doors of the mansion were ripped from their hinges and rested on the doorframe. All the front side windows on the first floor were broken.

  “Think there’s anything left?” Daphne asked.

  “Looters could turn this house upside down and they would never find what my father had in here. I doubt my stepmother knew. Let’s go.”

  Daphne followed closely behind Rye as he entered the house. At one point, the front room would have been perfect for a spread in Architectural Digest, but now, the overturned furniture and spray-painted walls took away from the hand-crafted columns and beams.

  Daphne read what was painted in red out loud: “No survivors. Clear.”

  “Maybe the National Guard or someone came through,” Rye said, heading down a hallway to the right. He motioned for Daphne to follow. They stopped at a large room. The walls were enormous floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that were empty. The matching hardwood floor was covered in books.

  “This place puts the public library in my town to shame,” Daphne said, picking up a book on alchemical psychology. “Your dad liked light reading, huh? No Harry Potter?”

  Rye didn’t answer. He walked to a massive desk that was way too heavy to overturn. He fumbled underneath as if he were feeling for something.

  “What are you doing?” Daphne asked.

  “My father had a hidden generator that was always charged in case of power outages.”

  “And you think it still works?”

  A soft white light filled the room.

  “Yep.”

  Rye made his way to a digital thermostat and placed his thumb on t
he readout. There was a loud beep followed by a computerized female voice. “Unknown scan. Press seven for override.”

  “What the hell is happening?”

  Rye searched through the books behind his father’s desk. “Help me find Catcher in the Rye. We only have two minutes before it goes into lockdown.”

  By the frantic glaze on Rye’s face, Daphne knew questions would have to come later. She dropped to her knees and searched through stacks of books. Rye kicked books out of the way. The voice in the thermostat warned that there were forty-five seconds left before shutdown.

  “Damn it,” Rye said, throwing a pile of books across the room.

  “Fifteen seconds before shutdown.”

  “Here.” Daphne tossed a copy of Catcher in the Rye to Rye.

  He opened the book. Part of the text was cutout and replaced with a small remote control. He pressed the three and four buttons at the same time.

  “I thought it said seven,” Daphne said.

  “Three plus four is seven,” Rye said.

  “Wouldn’t it have been easier to just press seven?”

  “Well, yeah, but my father knew that. If you press the seven key, the system locks down.”

  The computer voice spoke. “Override in progress. You must answer the following seven questions correctly. An incorrect answer will initiate immediate shutdown. Once shutdown is initiated, it is irreversible. You have one minute to answer each question.”

  “Are we really going to play Jeopardy?” Daphne asked.

  Rye pressed his index finger to his lips.

  “Question one. What is engraved on the golden pillar in the Well of Souls scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark?”

  “The words C-3P0 and R2-D2,” Rye said.

  “Correct. Question two. What was Luke Skywalker’s original name in Star Wars?”

  “Luke Starkiller,” Rye said.

  “Correct. Question three. What did Steven Spielberg name the shark in Jaws?”

  “Bruce,” Rye said.

  “Correct. Question four. In Jurassic Park, the character Dr. Alan Grant is patterned after this real-life paleontologist?”

  “Jack Horner,” Rye said.

  “Correct. Question five. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, what song can be heard when the mothership communicates with the base near the end of the movie?”

  “The theme for Jaws,” Rye said.

  “Correct. Question six. What is Elliot’s last name in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?”

  “Elliot’s last name is never mentioned in the movie,” Rye said.

  “Correct. And now the final question. Who shot first, Han Solo or Greedo?”

  “Han Solo,” Rye said.

  “Congratulations. Override is successful. It’s nice to finally meet you, Ryland.”

  “I’m so lost,” Daphne said. “I would have expected Jake Boone to use more sophisticated questions.”

  “He probably would have. I made those questions up.” He pointed to the thermostat. “There is a hidden fingerprint scanner on the readout. It only recognizes my father’s. He set up a backup in case something happened to him. He asked me to give him seven questions and answers that only I could answer in under a minute. I’m kind of like the backup generator for his secret room.”

  The computerized voice interrupted, “One last thing, Ryland. How’s hyperspace?”

  Rye laughed and quoted Han Solo, “‘It ain’t like dusting crops, farm boy.’”

  The computer voice chuckled. It sounded like a record skipping. “Override phase complete.”

  Two of the massive bookcases separated, exposing a gunmetal gray vault door.

  “Don’t tell me — you have to answer more questions,” Daphne said.

  “Nope. Just spin the wheel.”

  Rye twirled the wheel, and the door opened. The same soft light that was in the study filled the secret room. The walls were bare. The only furniture was a massive mahogany desk centered in the room. There was a computer monitor and a wireless keyboard on the desk, but nothing else.

  Daphne stared at the desk. “We had to jump through all those hoops for this?”

  “Just wait. It’s meant to look like a quiet place for my father to get away.” Rye grabbed the keyboard and started to type.

  “What are you doing now?”

  “Unlocking the rest of the room.”

  The computer voice spoke again. “Level 2 access granted. Please step away from the desk.”

  Rye took Daphne’s hand and led her across the room. The desk began to rise. The floor beneath it elevated. Two large metal arms lifted the desk exactly six feet four inches into the air.

  “No shit,” Daphne said.

  “No shit. Come on.” Rye let go of Daphne’s hand and walked toward the desk. “My father was six three. I’m five eleven. He specifically made the hydraulics lift the desk exactly one inch taller than him. I don’t know why. Just another one of his quirks.” Rye motioned for Daphne to follow as he started down a flight of stairs.

  “Level 2 access will be revoked in exactly thirty seconds,” the computerized voice said.

  Daphne ran to the stairs. As soon as her feet hit the steps, the desk started to lower.

  “She doesn’t play around, does she?” Daphne asked.

  “Nope.”

  Rye flipped a light switch. This room was much different. A floor-to-ceiling chalkboard covered one wall. The board was covered in what looked to be Jake Boone’s scrawled random thoughts. Four televisions hung on another wall. Beneath them were three laptops on an eight-foot table. The other two walls recessed into separate rooms behind glass doors. One of the rooms housed a metal table and two standing lights. Behind the other one, a safe took up the entire wall.

  Daphne stared in awe. “What the hell is this?”

  “That room,” Rye pointed to the metal table, “is where he logged his findings. Fossils, whatever. I’ve never been in the safe room.”

  Rye opened one of the laptops. Two of the television screens lit up: one with a screensaver of Jake Boone in the Congo, the other broken down into four smaller screens. Security cameras.

  “You know, under different circumstances, I would be fangirling right now. I mean, I’m in the secret lab of Jake Boone.”

  “Act professional. We have work to do,” Rye said, shooting a sly grin. He ran a finger over the touch pad on the laptop and the screen saver disappeared. The desktop image was a picture of Rye when he was about six with his dog Chewy. Rye chuckled under his breath.

  “That’s sweet.”

  Rye ran the pointer over a row of folders and stopped at one called GILA.

  “Who’s Gila?” Daphne asked.

  Rye opened the folder. “I think he means Gila as in Gila monster.”

  “The lizard?”

  “Yeah.”

  The folder contained a group of videos. One drew Rye’s attention. GRIFFIN_RESULTS_021610. He clicked on the video. A black screen appeared with the words “Argentina Findings.” The screen faded to a man who looked to be an older version of Rye. There was no introduction. No hello. Nothing. He held up a skull to the camera. It took both hands.

  “Jesus, Jake, this is out of this world…literally. You have an entire skeleton minus a right fibula. I don’t know what to say.” He sat the skull down. “The entire skeleton of” — he took a breath and looked at the skull — “a giant iguana. I mean it resembles an iguana, but the average green iguana is around six and a half feet. This thing is well over seven feet…and I’m not including the tail. This is remarkable.”

  “Who’s that?” Daphne asked.

  Rye paused the video. “It’s my uncle, Griffin Murphy. He’s a paleontologist at the Paleontological Research Institution in New York.” Rye clicked the mouse, and the video fired back up.

  “Your dad's brother?”

  Rye paused the video again and sighed. “Yeah.”

  “But your last name is Boone?”

  “Boone screams adventure more than Murphy. At least that'
s what television agents think. Can we back to this?” Rye smiled and started the video.

  “And it gets better. I’ve dated the bones to the Triassic period, but honestly it could be older than that,” Griffin said.

  “What does that mean?” Daphne asked.

  Rye exhaled and paused the video again. “The age of dinosaurs is broken down into three periods — Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. The Triassic period is known as the rise of the reptiles. There were therapsids, which were mammal-like, and archosaurs, which were known as ruling lizards. The archosaurs evolved into the first true dinosaurs. Archosaurs evolved. Therapsids didn’t.”

  “Maybe the archosaurs had a little help from friends below.” Daphne pointed to the floor.

  Rye shrugged his shoulders and started the video again.

  “This is one of the oldest and definitely the oddest fossils I’ve ever seen. There was nothing like this in the Chañares Formation. The closest thing was thecodontians. But the bone structure is more advanced. I don’t really know what to say, Jake.”

  A black box popped up on the screen, silencing and blocking out the video. The box had a flashing white dash and resembled a computer’s command prompt.

  “What the hell happened?” Daphne asked.

  “I don’t kn—”

  Typing interrupted Rye’s words.

  Ryland, is that you?

  “Another one of your dad’s safety rules?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  It’s Griffin. I received an alert that Jake’s system was online. Ryland, if you’re there, answer me. I don’t have much time. I’m on my last generator.

  Rye typed. I’m here.

  Thank God, you’re alive. Listen, the museum has been wiped out. I’ve survived by staying in this cocoon Jake made me build.

  “Not the greatest description,” Daphne said.

  Rye motioned for her to be quiet and typed. How long have you known these things existed?

  Later. I’ll tell you when you get to New York.

  New York? Travel may be a bit difficult considering I just ran into a couple of those lizards that you were describing in that video to my father.