by Randy Henson
“A lot of debris on the road. Wait. Damn, I think they stopped.”
“Is the road blocked?”
“No, nothing they can’t get around. They just stopped.”
“You think they know we’re here, sir?” Hale asked.
“I’d be surprised if they didn’t see the chopper. They know someone is here. Wait. I got movement again.”
Hale brought his hand back up to his brow and saw movement as well.
“Looks like only one vehicle.”
“Yeah, it looks like the other two are hanging back. This isn’t looking good,” Lundy said.
Then a loud voice came booming out of nowhere saying, “Lower your weapons and stand with your hands raised above your heads. You are completely surrounded. I repeat, place your weapons on the ground and stand with your hands above your heads.”
Lundy and Hale looked up and all around trying to place where the voice had come from. It seemed to have come down from the heavens.
“What the hell?” Lundy said.
“Oh, no. Look, Colonel,” Hale said as he tapped Lundy on the shoulder.
Lundy turned to see Hale staring across the baseball field behind them. He followed Hale’s gaze to find roughly twenty armed men around the helicopter with rifles raised.
“What do we do, Colonel?”
The voice boomed again.
“You have ten seconds to comply. Come out with your hands up.”
Lundy turned and looked up and down the road to see heavily armed men running towards them from both directions.
“You heard the man, Lieutenant,” Lundy said as he dropped his binoculars and stood with his hands raised above his head. He then walked calmly into the open, out into the middle of the road.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“What if he doesn’t come back?” Molly asked as she squeezed Jack’s thumb.
“He’ll be back.”
“But what if he isn’t?”
“He will be,” Jack assured her.
“We should go back to the merry-go-round.”
“No, we wait here.”
“I mean if he doesn’t come back.”
“If he doesn’t come back we’re going to find Bernie. Any idea where Joe took her?”
“He said he was taking her to Moira,” Molly said.
“Any idea where that would be?”
“Her room, I guess.”
“Where’s that?”
“Where we sleep.”
“You mean Macy’s?”
“Yeah. But I thought we were waiting for Orin.”
“We are. I’m talking about if he doesn’t come back.”
“But you said he was coming back.”
“Geez, kid.”
“My name’s not Kid. It’s Molly.”
“Look, here he comes now. I told you he’d be back.”
Orin entered the furniture store gasping for breath.
“So? What did you find out?” Jack asked.
Orin pointed one of the pistols he was holding into the air signaling for Jack to give him a moment to catch his breath.
“Old people sure get tired quick,” Molly said.
“Shut… up… kid… I’m… twenty… six…” Orin gasped.
“Wow, I didn’t know you were that old,” Molly said.
“That is pretty old,” Jack said.
“Shut… up… the pair… of ya…”
Molly and Jack waited as Orin lowered his pistols and rested them on his knees as he bent forward and sucked in oxygen.
Once Orin’s breathing slowed, Jack said, “If you’re finished having your heart attack, old man, you mind telling us what happened?”
Orin stood up straight again, sucked in a couple more lungs full of air and said, “We need to find your sister and get out of here.”
“Leave?”
“This place, this mall, we need to leave.”
“We can’t leave,” Molly said.
Orin nodded his head and said, “Yes, we can. The shooting we heard? Two guards opened fire on one another. No one knows why. The other guards are panicking. We need to leave.”
“Let’s go get Bernie,” Jack said as he shook his thumb loose from Molly’s grip, grabbed her hand, and led her out of the store.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Moira had been right. We didn’t have to wait long before Joe showed up.
“Was that our people doing all the shooting?” Moira asked him after he opened the door and walked into the room.
Joe wore a sour expression as he nodded ‘yes’.
“At one another?” Moira asked.
Joe nodded again.
“Then I’m afraid it’s started,” Moira said.
I looked from Joe to Moira and asked, “What’s started?”
“A battle between Matthew and another one of us,” Moira said.
“Matthew?” I asked.
“My grandson.”
“And by ‘one of us’ you mean a Category Six?” I asked.
“Another Rheostat?” Joe asked
“Yes, another Rheostat. Don’t worry. It won’t last long and no more of our people should be hurt.”
“How’s Matthew going to help us? He’s out ranging,” Joe said.
“He’s on his way back. He’ll be here soon. In the meantime, we need to get up to the roof.”
Joe shook his head and said, “No, it’s too dangerous.”
“It’s too dangerous if we don’t. More of our people will be killed if I don’t make it up to the roof. You two can stay here if you like, but I must go.”
“Okay, okay, we’ll go to the roof then,” Joe said as he turned and walked back out into the hallway.
Moira and I followed Joe down the hallway and across Macy’s to a door that exited into a stairwell.
“Bernie!” someone yelled as I started to step through the doorway and into the stairwell.
I turned to see Jack running toward us, Molly holding his hand and Orin on their heels.
“What’s going on?” I asked as the three of them stopped in front of me.
“We need to go,” Jack said.
“He’s right,” Orin said.
“Go? Go where?” I asked.
“To the roof. We’ll be safe there. But we must hurry,” Moira said and then turned and headed up the stairs, Joe at her side.
“Come on,” I said to the others before I turned and followed Moira and Joe up the stairs.
“Wait, Bernie, where are you going?” Jack asked.
I turned my head as I continued to follow Moira and Joe up the stairs. Jack, Molly, and Orin were following, but they all wore worried expressions.
“We need to stay with Moira,” I said.
“That’s crazy. We need to get out of here,” Orin said.
“And go where?” I asked.
“I don’t think we should leave. I can’t leave Granny,” Molly said.
“The guards have turned on one another. They’re killing each other. This place isn’t safe,” Orin said.
“He’s right. Didn’t you hear the gunshots?” Jack asked.
We had reached the top of the stairs and Joe opened the door that led onto the galleria’s roof. He held it open for Moira as she walked briskly out onto the roof and over to the roof’s ledge.
The rest of us exited onto the roof and Joe ran over to stand at the ledge next to Moira.
Jack grabbed my left arm as the door clicked shut behind us.
“Come on, Bernie. We need to go. Now,” Jack said.
“We can’t leave Moira now,” I said. “If we leave, Jack, your symptoms will return.”
Jack let go of my arm as a look of horror washed over his face.
“You don’t know that,” Orin said.
“Yes, I do. Don’t ask me how I know, but I know.”
Then a booming voice filled the air around us.
“Leave us in peace or you will surely die!” the voice echoed.
“Was that her?” Orin asked as he pointed at Mo
ira’s back.
Yes, it had been. I couldn’t believe it, though. How could such a powerful voice come from such a small, elderly woman?
“Send out Davenport!” a male voice echoed in response.
“Who’s Davenport?” Jack asked.
“He’ll be here soon. I suggest you leave now before he returns,” Moira bellowed.
“He means Matt. Moira is his granny,” Molly said.
“I shall wait then,” the male voice echoed.
“An unwise choice!” Moira warned.
“So be it!” the voice responded.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Colonel Lundy, Lieutenant Hale, and Dr. Nichols sat in the back of a transport truck with their legs linked together with ankle chains and their hands cuffed behind their backs. Across from them: Captain Peterson, Sergeant Rogers, and Corporal Morgan were similarly linked and cuffed.
“Where do you think they’re taking us, sir?” Hale asked.
“Nowhere we want to go, I’m sure, Lieutenant,” Lundy answered.
“I can’t believe they just shot them like that,” Rogers said to no one in particular, referring to his men.
“Your troops did fire first, Sergeant. What were you thinking?” Lundy asked.
“Thinking? Me? I didn’t order them to fire. I was following your lead, sir. You saw me put my hands in the air,” Rogers said.
“You’re lucky you did, Rogers. You’d have been shot along with the rest of them for sure,” Hale said.
“I hate surrendering, but we were in an untenable situation,” Lundy said.
“We were in what?” Rogers asked.
“Defenseless, Sergeant. We had no other options,” Lundy explained.
“What now?” Dr. Nichols asked to no one in particular.
“If we’re lucky, now we get some answers,” Lundy said.
“Or a bullet a piece,” Peterson said.
“No, Captain. If that were the case, they would have shot us alongside the others,” Hale pointed out.
“We could be tortured for information and then shot,” Morgan said.
Lundy frowned at Morgan and said, “Way to look on the bright side, Corporal.”
Morgan shrugged and looked away.
“So what are our options?” Peterson asked.
“We’re handcuffed and chained. My guess is we won’t be given any options,” Hale said.
“Well, if we are, and one of the options is being tortured for information, I suggest we all choose option ‘B’,” Dr. Nichols said.
Lundy looked over at Dr. Nichols and said, “He’s right, men. If you’re asked any questions, answer them truthfully. Don’t try to hold out and be brave. It won’t do you or anyone else any good. Everyone has a breaking point. There’s no need for us to be tortured.”
“What if they don’t believe what we tell them and they torture us anyway?” Dr. Nichols asked.
“Then God help us,” Morgan said.
Lundy turned back to Morgan and said, “So you believe in God, Corporal?”
Morgan shrugged and said, “It’s just an expression, sir.”
Lundy nodded and said, “Yes, I know that, Corporal. But do you believe in God?”
Dr. Nichols closed his eyes and said, “Not this again.”
“Corporal?” Lundy said.
Morgan frowned and said, “I don’t know, sir. I guess that’s going to depend on whether or not we’re tortured to death.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I grabbed Molly’s right shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
“Everything will be okay, sweetheart,” I said.
Molly gave me a weak smile and nodded.
I let go of her shoulder, turned, and walked over to join Moira and Joe at the roof’s ledge as the others followed me.
“Who were you talking to?” I asked.
“A Category Six, or as Joseph likes to call us – a Rheostat. Apparently he’s here for my grandson.”
“Matthew,” I said.
“Yes, Matthew.”
“What does he want with Matthew?” I asked.
“To pick a fight, I’d imagine. Otherwise, why would he force our people to turn on one another?”
“Wait, that voice you were talking to… are you saying he’s the reason your guards started shooting at one another?” Orin asked.
Moira turned to look at Orin and said, “Yes, and since he only manipulated two of our people, he was just trying to get our attention.”
“How’d he manage that?” Jack asked.
“Magic,” Molly said.
“Mind control,” I said.
“Telepathy,” Moira said and turned back to look down at the parking lot.
I followed her gaze and saw a rough looking man in dirty denim staring up at us from the middle of the parking lot. He was standing on the roof of a Suburban. Around two dozen other men stood around the Suburban looking up at us as well.
“Why don’t I just shoot him?” Joe asked.
“You even try and he’ll enter your mind, and who knows what he’ll try to make you do,” Moira said.
“Can’t you protect me?” Joe asked her.
“Probably, but it’s wiser if we wait for Matthew to get here. Matthew is much stronger than I am and he’s the one this man wants to fight anyway. I say let him. Fool.”
“So that’s why they’re not attacking? Because they’re waiting for your grandson?” Orin asked.
“Correct. He knows that if he attacks I will fight him,” Moira said.
“But he already attacked,” I said.
“No, killing only two of ours means he was only trying to get our attention. Now that he has it he will wait for Matthew. He won’t fight me because he knows that even though he might win, fighting me will weaken him. He doesn’t want that. He knows he’ll need all his strength for Matthew.”
“Look,” Joe said as he pointed at a group of lights approaching from the distance, about a mile up the highway.
Moira crossed her arms and said, “And that would be Matthew.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“I think we’re slowing down,” Peterson said.
“We are,” Hale said.
Lundy looked around at the others and said, “Remember what I said, men. They ask you anything, answer them truthfully. Offer no resistance. I want you to cooperate with them completely. We’re military and our mission is not only righteous, it’s obvious. Fighting these bastards will only make it harder on the rest of us.”
“Yes, sir,” Hale said.
“What if they ask about V-33?” Dr. Nichols asked.
“If they ask about it, then they already know about it. Besides, if they’re the bastards that set off that bomb, then they probably know more about what’s going on than we do. Understood?” Lundy said.
“Understood, sir,” Dr. Nichols said.
Lundy nodded and shared a glance with Hale. The only thing important to Lundy was keeping Hale’s identity secret.
That’s the only thing that mattered now.
The transport truck rolled to a stop. After a few moments there was a click and then there was the sound of metal scraping against metal. Then the transport’s backdoor slid up and open, revealing two men in suits armed with automatic rifles.
One of the armed men pointed at Dr. Nichols and said, “This group first. Out.”
Dr. Nichols stood and baby-stepped to the edge of the transport. He looked down at the ground and then over at the armed man who had spoken.
“We’re chained together. How do I get down?” Dr. Nichols asked.
The armed man laughed and said, “Figure it out. You got ten seconds and then I shoot you and drag your corpse out. Your choice.”
Dr. Nichols turned ghost white as he turned to look at the others.
“Go all the way to your left. We’ll all sit down on the ledge and drop off at the same time,” Hale said.
Dr. Nichols nodded and shuffled to his left as Hale and Lundy followed. The three of them sat down on the tra
nsport’s edge with their chained legs dangling.
“On the count of three,” Hale said. “One… two… three.”
All three of them dropped to the concrete, Dr. Nichols stumbling and Hale grabbing his arm to steady him.
“Very good,” the armed man said. “Move to the side. Next group, it’s your turn.”
Morgan, Rogers, and Peterson followed suit, only they didn’t count out loud.
“Good. Now follow my compadre,” the armed man said as his partner took the lead.
As the prisoners shuffled after their armed captor they looked around to find themselves in an underground garage.
“Eyes forward!” the man behind them commanded.
They were led along an aisle of cars and to an elevator.
“I’ll take the first group down,” said the armed man who had done all the talking so far.
His partner just nodded.
When the elevator chimed and its doors slid open, their captor said, “In, facing the wall.”
Dr. Nichols, Hale, and Lundy entered the elevator and walked until their noses were almost touching the elevator’s back wall.
Their captor entered and pushed the button marked B3.
The doors slid shut and the elevator dropped.
After a few moments, the elevator chimed again and the doors slid open.
“Okay, out.”
Dr. Nichols, Hale, and Lundy shuffled and rotated around. Then they exited the elevator.
Their captor pointed and said, “Along that wall, facing it.”
The elevator’s doors closed behind them as they rotated again and shuffled up against a concrete wall, facing it.
A minute later the elevator chimed once again and its doors opened to reveal Peterson, Rogers, and Morgan.
“Out,” the armed man in the elevator said from behind them.
“Damn it, Jerry, you’re supposed to make them face the back wall.”
Jerry followed his captives out of the elevator and said, “What does it matter?”
“Ask me that after someone takes your gun and shoots you. You three against the wall, follow me.
Lundy, Hale, and Dr. Nichols turned and rotated and followed their captor down a concrete hallway. They were led around a corner and found themselves in a large boiler room. On their left was a lattice work of pipes and plumbing and to their right were seven large cages. Inside some of the cages were prisoners laying motionless on mattresses.