The Taking

by Becky Johnson

  7:50 p.m.

  Ruth's meandering path took her down Church Avenue and toward First Street. She had walked a grid, covering almost the entire south part of town. In the last hour, she hadn't seen anything unusual, but she felt something.

  Something that told her the quiet was a lie. She paused on the corner of First and Church and looked both ways. One block to her left the trees that surrounded Heritage loomed heavy and thick. To her right, First Street ran toward Town Hall. Ruth studied both directions. Going to the right seemed obvious. She turned that way, focusing on the path in front of her.

  Everything in her wanted to turn back. Everything said that right wasn't the direction she should go in. Everything but her own logic.

  Ruth leaned against the pole of a street light and said a quick prayer. "God guide me, help me to find a way to save everyone. I'm ready to see you, Lord."

  With that plea sent heavenward, Ruth set off. Her footsteps a little slower now as she tired, and her back a little more stooped, but she pressed forward with the determination to save Heritage, one way or another.

  7:50 p.m.

  Henry’s fingers cramped, wrapped tight around the seat belt. He was shaking. The cab of the truck was warm again, but he was still shivering from the bone-deep cold brought by the Takers.

  “Are you okay?”

  Matt’s words seemed loud in the quiet of the cab, making Henry jump.

  “Yeah.” It came out garbled and broken. Henry cleared his throat. “Yes. I’m okay. Are you?”

  Matt let out a laugh with just a hint of hysteria. “Yeah, yeah I’m good. Just another night in Heritage.” The look he shot Henry was enough to break a boyish giggle out of his mouth. It felt good to be treated as an equal and not as a little kid. The thought made Henry sit up a little straighter.

  “How did you find me?”

  Matt gave a little huff of a laugh before answering, “Luck.”

  “I was driving toward the school when I saw them. I almost drove past and missed you.”

  Henry’s stomach squirmed at the thought. He could have been alone. He could still be back there with those things.

  “What are they? What do they want?” Henry could hear the tremble in his words and tried to sit up straighter to make up for his voice’s weakness. He’d never been in the presence of a real live hero, but Matt had saved him tonight. Henry was in awe. He wanted Matt to see him as strong, to see him as a peer. But inside, he felt like such a baby. He wanted to be an adult, to be fearless, but he also, more than anything, wanted someone to tell him that everything was going to be all right.

  “I don’t have any good answers for you. We call them the Takers, but I don’t know what they are or from where they come. No one does.” Matt slowed the truck and turned onto Fifth Street. He stopped just around the corner, cut the lights, and let the engine idle. He looked around. “I don’t see them anymore.”

  Henry craned his neck as well. Now, it was just another regular night. Stars shining. Somewhere an animal called. “I don’t see anything, either.”

  “Right. So, I don’t really have a plan here kid. I’m literally making it up as I go along, but I feel like we should find a place to bunker down. What do you think?”

  Matt was asking him what he thought? “Sounds good. Umm. Do you know what they want, why they were after us? Do they …” he felt this throat tighten and threaten to strangle his words, “kill people?” His voice may have been a little high on the word kill, but overall, he was proud of how calm he sounded.

  “Yeah. I mean, they take them, so I guess they have to be dead.” Matt sighed and scanned the area again before pulling out his phone. “I don’t really know what they want. If you listen to the town council,” there was a little sneer in his tone, “they are the price we pay to be safe. I don’t believe that though.” Matt looked straight at Henry. “Good doesn’t come from evil, Kid, it never does. Whatever they want and why they are here. It isn’t to give us peace.”

  The words put a knot in Henry’s stomach, but he felt a little shot of pride as well at being called kid. It was a nickname. Like Matt was really his friend.

  Matt looked at his phone. “Shit,” he grimaced, “Sorry, Sarah sent a text. She came outside, looking for you. We need to find her.”

  Henry felt himself nodding even though he was still hung up on the thought of those creatures making him disappear.

  “Where are you?” Matt muttered under his breath as he typed those words on his phone. “As soon as we know where Sarah is, we’ll go get her. Then get somewhere safe. We’ll bunker down for the rest of the night, and in the morning, well, I don’t know. Right now, I think I’m getting out of here.”

  Henry didn’t know what to say. Was ‘take me with you’ too babyish? Because at that moment he didn’t ever want to be alone again.

  7:55 p.m.

  Sarah pressed her back against the brick wall of the pharmacy where she was hidden underneath the awning. She looked up and down the street. It was empty. At least that’s what her eyes told her. Her instincts were screaming something completely different. They were screaming danger. Loud and clear. Danger. There was something or someone else here. She was sure of it.

  Carefully, slowly, and as quietly as possible she slid her backpack off her shoulders and slipped it around to her front. She slid down the brick to a crouch and placed her backpack on the ground between her thighs. Without taking her eyes off the street, Sarah reached in and felt for the gun. Her fingers slid over bandages and a bottle of water before they grazed the butt of the pistol. She wrapped her hand around the grip of the revolver and drew it out. Sarah wasn’t used to handling guns. Her father had taught her the basics, but it wasn’t something she did enough to feel confident. Her palm on the grip of the weapon was sweaty. She wiped her hands on her sweatshirt before raising the pistol in front of her.

  Something flickered at the corner. Sarah squinted but couldn’t make it out. The street suddenly seemed foggy, like everything was hidden behind a strange haze.

  She swept her gun from one side to the other. She saw another flicker out of the corner of her eye. Her arms swung to the left to get it in her sights. Nothing. Her heart thundered. Something flickered to the right. She turned to the right to catch it. Nothing. Sarah had never been more terrified. The gun in her hand bobbed up and down with the tremors that shook her arms. Her whole body was shaking. Fine tremors gripped every muscle which made her feel like she was shaking apart. The haze suddenly cleared, as if pushed away by a breeze and Sarah could see movement in between the buildings across the street. She tightened her grip and turned to face the threat with her finger on the trigger.

  Her phone buzzed, vibrating in her pocket. Loud enough that it seemed to echo even on vibrate. She fumbled for her pocket and the phone. It slipped from her fingers and hit the concrete with a crack but kept buzzing.

  Sarah scrambled for the phone while keeping her eye on the street. She was afraid that if she looked away for even a second, she would be Taken. Her fingers scraped against the rough cement beneath her before she managed to grab hold of the phone.

  She leaned back against the wall, clicked the phone to silence the text notice, and drew it up to her chest. She clutched it tightly with one hand, the gun in the other as she surveyed the street again. She didn’t see anything. Swiping her thumb across the screen, she unlocked her phone and brought the bright display in front of her face. Matt sent a message. He had Henry. Thank God. Her anxiety over Henry left her in an exhalation.

  Her relief was short lived. Across the street, a figure stepped out from the shadows. It was tall. Taller than her own five-foot-seven frame and draped with a long black cloak. There was no discernible way to determine if the figure was male or female. No way to identify hair color or race. Only the long black cloak and the intense feeling of danger. Sarah pressed the phone to her chest afraid that the light from the screen would draw attention.

  Its wide hood tilted to the left like an inquisitive dog.
But it wasn’t facing her. Its attention was focused down the street. With a visible shudder and shiver of the air around it, it moved. Not walking, more like a strange, stilted glide, flickering. Sarah’s breath caught, fighting the instinctive urge to scream. Fear clenched in her chest, and her throat was tight like a fist was wrapped around it, making it so she couldn’t pull in enough air.

  Another shudder and the figure drifted down the street toward the town center. In seconds it would be directly across from her, mere yards away. Sarah clenched her phone in one hand and her gun in the other. So far it didn’t seem to acknowledge her presence, but the slightest noise would surely alert the creature, and it would hone in on right where she crouched.

  She tried to control her breathing. Slow and quiet, but to her, it felt like loud panting. For a second, she was almost overwhelmed with a vision of her mother standing in front of a creature just like the black cloaked thing that moved down the street toward her. She clenched her jaw shut against the low moan that vibrated in her throat, a sign of her distress outside of her control.

  The figure was now directly across from her, in the center of the street. Hold on. Hold on. Stay still. Be invisible. She chanted in her head. Just a few more seconds and it would be gone.

  Her phone buzzed again. The creature stopped less than a hundred feet from Sarah’s hiding place. Her hand pressed the phone harder to her chest and frantically felt for the button on the side to silence the alert.

  Her finger slid over it, pressing down. The silence around her was complete and absolute. She didn’t think her heart was beating or her lungs pumping. Everything was frozen in anticipation of the creature’s next move.

  Seconds stretched into hours as nothing moved. Not Sarah crouched in the shadows or the creature on the street.

  The air grew strangely heavy, pressing down on Sarah, pushing her back into the building. She felt like she was outside of her body. Unable to control only to observe as the creature finally moved. It’s hood swept from side to side, looking. Sarah waited for it to turn toward her. Please don’t see me. Please go away. But she felt sure that at any moment the creature would see her and advance.

  Its hood swung all the way around in her direction, although its body didn’t appear to move at all. Although she couldn’t see any eyes buried under the hood, she felt their weight as they gazed at her crouched in the corner. The tension in her chest from holding still was painful. No, no, no. Go away! She didn’t actually see it take steps, but she blinked, and suddenly it seemed closer.

  A muffled noise like something you might hear underwater came to them from a distance. Faster than she could track, the creature moved. A blur of flickering light surrounded by shadow and then nothing. The street in front of her was empty.

  8:03 p.m.

  Ruth kept hearing noises. The squeal of brakes, yelling, the metallic smashing sounds of a crash, but she hadn’t seen anything. Ruth scanned her surroundings. She kept expecting to see something, anything. Instead, she only saw a quiet street with a row of white houses, all with the porch lights off and curtains drawn.

  At first, she thought the noises came from the east side of town, and she started walking that way, but then an engine clearly roared. It sounded like it came from behind her. East, west. Then silence. Ruth felt like she was walking in circles. She lifted her wrist and looked at her late husband’s watch that hung loosely on her thin arm. She had been out walking the streets of Heritage for a couple of hours now, and it was quite frankly much more boring than she expected. Tales of fearsome cloaked creatures who stole people away were starting to seem imaginary. So far, she had just been walking around. Other than the odd wind a few hours ago, there had been nothing interesting or exciting.

  Town Hall was just two blocks ahead. Since she wasn't born in Heritage, Ruth wasn't allowed to attend the monthly meetings. Her Sam had attended every month. When he came home from Town Hall, he would drink himself into a stupor. He never drank any other time, but the day after the Taking he got roaring drunk. Every time. Without fail.

  Sam didn't like to talk about what they did in Town Hall. Instead, he wanted to focus on how safe and good Heritage was. He believed it was the perfect place to live. The ideal place to raise their child. He believed that right up until the day they killed him.

  8:11 p.m.

  The crowd huddled in the corners of Town Hall, as far away from the Anderson family as they could get. Paul could barely believe his eyes. Even with all the martyrdom and duty bullshit the Mayor just spouted, even with all of the heartache and pain this town had endured, they still believed sacrificing someone was the right course of action. This was beyond ridiculous. He couldn’t help but look around in shock at these people he had known all of his life. How did they not see what was happening? How did they not know that they were being manipulated? They were fools, every single one of them. They deserved to live in this town. They deserved to be sacrificed to the Mayor and his ego. They deserved everything that was coming to them.

  He was tempted to get up and walk out. Let the door slam behind him. If he ran into one of the Takers, fine. If not, fine. He was done with this town and its pathetic people. They were lemmings running off a cliff, blind followers who didn’t even care that they were lemmings. How do you make a lemming realize it’s a lemming? You don’t. You just let them go. If they wanted to run off a cliff, they could run off a cliff. He was done.

  Mind made up, Paul sat back in his seat and stared up at the Mayor and town leaders. They were preparing for another name drawing, confident in their power and control over the town. These people were so afraid of what the Takers might do they were willing to allow these men to decide who lived and died. They would let the Mayor sacrifice another person.

  Paul hated them. He hated them with a fierce passion. The kind of intense hatred that could only be present in the heart of someone who had once been in thrall to them. Now that he could see the truth, now that he understood what was happening, he saw the Mayor for what he was, a slimy, narcissistic, dictator with a bad comb-over. No matter what happened tonight, Paul was determined to be free of this town and its leaders. Free of the control and the fear.

  The Mayor’s voice interrupted his musings.

  “My people, my people.” His people. Right. Ridiculous. But the crowd responded as the whispers died off and faces all turned to the front. “I know this isn’t what we want. This isn’t what any of us see as a good solution.”

  He bowed his head, the very picture of mournful regret. “We don’t have any choice. For the good of the many, we must sacrifice a few. For our children and their children. Heritage has protected us. Protected them. We must protect Heritage.”

  He scanned the crowd to gauge the impact of his words. “I can’t think of anything better than this. Sacrifice for the greater good.”

  He turned toward the men gathered behind him, one of whom brought the box forward. “We will draw two more names.”

  A mummer of dismay slid through the crowd, but no one spoke out. “Together the three will go out and face the Takers. They will save our town. Their names will always be remembered. And their sacrifice will never be taken for granted.” People in the crowd nodded in complete agreement with the words of the man standing above them.

  The Mayor moved over to the box and stood with his hand lingering over it. When he was sure he had everyone’s attention, he reached in and drew out a name.

  8:11 p.m.

  The phone screen stayed black. Matt rechecked it. Still no message from Sarah. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, and then rechecked the phone.

  Henry sat curled up on the passenger seat with his backpack on his lap. His skinny arms were wrapped tight around the bag as his eyes scanned the street. His shoulders were hunched up around his ears.

  Matt had to get him off the streets and somewhere safe. He looked at his phone again. Still nothing back from Sarah. His stomach knotted. Sarah was his best friend. Of all people, he knew how traumatized she
was of this night, of the Takers. They had taken her mother. Now she was out there somewhere, and he didn’t know where or how she was.

  A large part of him wanted to drop everything and find her right away. He shot a look at Henry. As brave he was acting the kid was terrified. Hell, Matt was scared, and he hadn’t been trapped on the street surrounded by the creatures. Go after Sarah or protect Henry. It was an impossible situation. He couldn’t keep Henry with him and put him at risk.

  “Ok. Kid. I’m going to take you back home. We’ll get you settled in, and then I’ll go back and look for Sarah.” Henry looked over at him. He couldn’t figure out the look in Henry’s eyes, but he saw his fist wrap around the batman hanging from his backpack.

  “I don’t want to go home while Sarah’s still out there. She went looking for me. I want to help find her.” His voice was quiet but very sure.

  Matt wasn’t going to waste time arguing. However sure Henry was, he didn’t want to risk his safety. For one thing, he was pretty sure Sarah would yell at him if he so much as tried to come get her first. And secondly, he didn’t think that he should risk the kid when he didn’t even know where Sarah was.

  He put the truck in first gear and eased back out onto the street. The truck purred quietly but still seemed unnaturally loud in the middle of the night. He cruised slowly down the road with the lights off and kept his head on a swivel.

  “Hey Henry, keep an eye out for me. If you see anything off at all, let me know.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Henry nod.

  As he passed the homogenous houses, he searched for any evidence of anyone inside. The curtains didn’t twitch. No lights came on. Tonight, everyone in Heritage pretended that they were alone in the world. If they went up to a door and knocked, begging for help, no one would answer.