“Have you heard from Maddy?” Bodey asked.
Sara must have caught the tone in his voice. She pulled her apron off and laid it on the counter. “No. I was just going to call her too. It’s not like her to stay out of touch with her kids all day. Is something wrong?”
Maddy’s father touched his shoulder. “Has something happened?”
Bodey glanced at Winslow and then told them what had happened. Mike and Sara listened quietly but the concern grew in both their faces as the story unfolded. “We were hoping she was here, but it looks like they have taken her. We don’t know for sure.”
“Why didn’t you just call?” Mike asked. “We’re wasting time.”
“We didn’t want to upset you.”
“A little late for that. You said Smith is here too? Is he trying to find her?”
“Yes. He and his team. They are very good.”
“And you haven’t heard from Jake?”
Bodey shook his head. “No one has.”
Mike stood and paced for a minute. “These ‘dimensional travelers,’ how would they have gotten around? Did they know people here?”
“Not that we know.”
“Maddy was driving her minivan last night. Was it at the lab?”
“No,” Winslow said. “My car was the only one in the lot.”
“Then they’ve taken it. We can find them.” Mike left the kitchen on a mission and came back with a piece of paper. He grabbed the phone on the wall and spoke to a GPS service supplied by the manufacturer of the car and gave them a code. He wrote something down on a piece of paper and thanked the representative.
“Wells Road,” Mike said. “Let’s go.”
~ ~ ~
Benjamin drove a few blocks, pulled into a gas station and went into the bathroom. He needed to clean himself up. People would run from him in terror if he went roaming around with blood caked on his face and nose. His testicles were still protesting a bit, but he was able to walk without much trouble. It was a good thing that he was not interested in sex at the moment.
The bitch, Elise, had abused him for the last time. He would have to find a way to kill her and keep her down. Maybe if he burned her body or ran a stake through her heart she would stay dead. Of course, no one but Miller had come back from the dead yet and maybe he was the only one. The voice spoke to him then and said Don’t be a fool. She can’t be killed.
“She can if there’s isn’t a body left to bring back.” He realized he was talking to the voice now and this bothered him. Was he actually going crazy? He didn’t think so. He had the urge to kill sometimes without some voice telling him it needed to be done. And what was that all about anyway? He didn’t need anyone telling him who he could kill. The voice, nor Bart knew anything about him. He would choose and the others could go fuck themselves.
Big mistake, my friend. Big mistake.
“Shut up.” He dried his face and inspected his appearance. Not bad. In the dark of a parking lot no one would know any difference. He left the gas station and drove down the street until he came to the first bar on the right. He pulled into the parking lot and sat in the dark. He didn’t have to wait long. A young girl approached the minivan heading for her car and he opened the door and stepped from the van.
“Excuse me, Miss,” he said. She slowed, but did not stop. “Could you help me for a moment?”
“I’m not helping you,” she said and actually moved away faster, glancing behind her to make sure he wasn’t following.
“Bitch,” he muttered under his breath and got back in the van. Five minutes later another young girl came out of the bar alone and he watched her weaving as she approached her vehicle. He couldn’t believe it. “Some people just don’t know when they’ve had too much. She should be ashamed of herself. Driving drunk is a big no-no.” He grinned and stepped from the van.
“Excuse me, Miss?”
She screamed. Benjamin glanced around, shocked, and when he didn’t see anyone, stepped to her quickly and punched her in the face. She stood there stunned, blood leaking from her lip. She did not fall.
That was brilliant, the voice said. Now what?
She was so bombed she was numb. She found her voice again and Benjamin elbowed her in the face and she finally went down. He picked her up and carried her back to the minivan. He dropped her at his feet and then opened the back lift gate. Picking her up again, he realized she wasn’t going to fit in the back.
“Stupid fucking minivan,” he muttered. I can’t believe you were ever successful at even killing a dog before. What a loser. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”
He dropped her to the ground again and opened the sliding side door. He bent to pick her up and noticed a couple of people walking out of the bar. They glanced his way but moved on. He picked her up and struggled with her dead weight, but managed to get her inside. He slid the door shut and leaned against the van, panting. He couldn’t remember when he’d felt so out of shape. You planned this very poorly, the voice said. As a matter of fact you didn’t plan at all.
A Chevelle came flying into the parking lot, slowed, and then barked its tires as it accelerated toward his part of the parking lot. Benjamin stood up straight and watched it approach rapidly. He didn’t know what was going on but he had a bad feeling. He went to the driver’s door and opened it as the 70’s muscle car skidded to a stop in front of the van and a large man in his sixties stepped from the vehicle, raised a huge looking pistol, and pointed it at him.
“Where is she?” the man said.
Another man and then a woman exited the passenger side of the vehicle and Benjamin thought the woman looked familiar. Benjamin raised his hands and said. “In the van.”
“Move away,” said the big man and gestured with the gun. Benjamin slid to his left away from the van and contemplated his next move. The big man moved to the van and opened the door, then cursed when he saw the woman bleeding inside.
“Where’s Maddy?” the man shouted and raised the gun to Benjamin’s head.
Maddy? The woman back at the hotel? What the hell was this? You didn’t plan very well, the voice said again. “I don’t know a Maddy,” he lied.
“Bullshit. This is her car. Where is she?”
The other two were keeping their distance, but the bearded man was on a cell phone communicating something. It was time to go.
“Bye,” Benjamin said and ran to his left. He didn’t think the guy would shoot. He was wrong. The sound of a cannon went off and Benjamin was spun sideways, but then ducked behind another van and changed directions. He came out just behind the Chevelle as another car pulled into the parking lot. The gun fired again and the man shouted to stop, but Benjamin was not about to do that. He jumped in front of the car entering the lot and it slammed on its brakes just brushing into his knees. He went to the driver’s door and yanked it open.
“What the fuck?” The driver said as Benjamin tossed him out of the car onto the pavement. He jumped in and slammed the car into reverse, hitting the gas. The tires squealed and he spun the wheel as he accelerated backward. There was a passenger in the car. A woman. She screamed and when he crashed into the cars parked behind him as he turned around, she opened her door and leapt from the vehicle. He watched her roll away as he slammed the gear shift into drive and laid down two tracks of rubber flying out of the parking lot. His rear windshield shattered and then he heard the shot as the asshole fired at him again.
As he sped away, he started to feel the pain. He looked at his chest and saw blood flowing from a spot just above his stomach. He coughed then and spat blood. He had been shot.
His chest felt like a lead weight was sitting on it and he was starting to have a hard time getting air in and out of his lungs. In a panic, he drove straight to the hotel. As he pulled in, he could hear his breath rattling in his chest. That was not good. Pulling in front of the room, he fell from the car as he got out and couldn’t seem to get his muscles to work so he could stand. The lights from the parking lot were starting to swi
m in and out of his vision and the voice was mocking him as he felt things slip away. You’re a fool. You’ve lost your touch. I should keep you instead. I should keep you. You’re too ineffective to be of any use to me. You’re useless.
A pair of feet appeared in front of his face and then he felt himself being picked up. The world spun crazily and then he was staring into the scarred face of John Miller.
“What the fuck did you do?” Miller said, and carried him inside. He dropped him unceremoniously on the floor and Benjamin cried out in pain.
“I can’t breathe,” he said thickly. The blood taste was stronger in his mouth. Some woman screamed and then Bart was kneeling in front of him.
“Keep her quiet,” Bart said to someone out of Benjamin’s line of sight. “What did you do, Ben?”
“Nothing.”
“You got shot for nothing?”
“I was just quieting the voice. It needed attention. I tried to tell you that.”
“I told you to subdue that shit.”
“It wouldn’t listen. Am I dying?”
“Yes. But you don’t have to worry. You’ll be back. Just as soon as I figure out how.” He chuckled then and Benjamin felt panic rise in him.
“I don’t want to go back there. Fix me. I don’t want to go back…”
“You should have thought about that before you ran off on your little adventure. Will there be somebody looking for you?”
“Big man with a cannon for a gun. In a Chevelle. Looking for Maddy.” He heard a gasp as he presumed Maddy reacted to his words. “I can’t breathe…” he whispered and the lights began graying out in his vision. He was no longer feeling any pain, but he was terrified of that place. He couldn’t stand the loneliness. He couldn’t stand it. Couldn’t stand it. Wouldn’t stand it….then it went dark.
~ ~ ~
Maddy heard what Benjamin said and worried her father had been hurt. If he was looking for her then maybe Jake was with them too. She could only hope. Benjamin was wounded seriously and she knew he was probably not going to make it. His friends didn’t seem too concerned over this and they just stood there watching the life run out of him onto the carpet. They actually took a step backward as the end came and when the ground started to vibrate, she realized why.
“Oh no,” she said.
“Here we go again,” Lucky said as the portal cascaded open with a cacophony of light and sound. Maddy hid her face behind her bound hands as dust and dirt swirled in the air around them. The portal stood open and wavering when she finally looked and she was surprised no music accompanied its opening. Maybe something was different about this one. She could see into the void and watched as a blood red light pulsed within. Nothing else could be seen. Benjamin’s body was lifted from the ground, pulled inside the portal, and then it clapped shut with a large exhale of air. And one body.
Jake lay on the floor unmoving and as Maddy felt tears fall from her face, Jake’s eyes opened and he sat up.
Bart approached him and said, “Jake Townsend I presume.”
Chapter 36
Jake stood and stared at the man who had opened the doors to hell. It was not what he expected. The good looks, bright smile and extended hand bore no resemblance to the visions conjured in his head. He recognized the face from the scenes in Elise’s head when she pulled the wool over all their eyes, but he hadn’t associated that face with the ones his mind created locked in that void of nothingness.
Disorientation at his surroundings only confounded his confusion and without realizing it, he was reaching for the psycho’s gloved hand. As the man grasped his fingers, he noticed Maddy, bound and on the floor next to two people he did not recognize. He jerked his hand from Bart’s and went to her. She fell into his arms, sobbing.
“I thought you were dead,” she said.
“So did I,” he whispered. “How long have I been gone?”
“About 2 days, I think. Since you left Orange Park.”
Jake couldn’t believe it. He felt ancient. He was positive years had passed and his children had all grown up and left the nest, Maddy grown old, and Mike and Sara possibly long dead. A day. Two days at the most was incomprehensible. His brain spun at the thought and he actually had a moment of vertigo.
“Okay, kiddies,” Bart said, “no time for reunions. We have to move. John, you handle Dr. Townsend. Elise, our Air Force beauty, and I’ll deal with the wife and the Lucky one. Who has the keys?”
“Benjamin had a different vehicle,” John said. “The van was not with him.”
“Shit! I’m gonna kill that fucker when he comes back to life. Will we all fit?”
John shrugged.
“All right, sardine time. Let’s move!” Bart grabbed Maddy, shoving her forward as he nudged the tall man with his pistol. The others followed.
“You have to stop this,” Jake said as he was led outside.
“We don’t have time for this right now, Doctor. And why would I stop this anyway? This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
“You don’t understand. You’ve disrupted a delicate balance that could endanger all of our existence if it is not rectified. For all time. You think you are immortal, but it’s an illusion.”
“John, if he speaks again, subdue him. I don’t want to hear his shit.”
John poked Jake in the back, hard, and said, “The next one will not be so gentle. Move.”
Jake shuffled forward and took a look at the car they were all supposed to fit in. He didn’t think it was going to happen.
“Just fucking great,” Bart said and threw up his hands. He could hear sirens in the distance and presumed they were for Ben. “All right, we’ll have to make it work. I’m driving. Everybody else will have to cram in. Stick her in the trunk,” he pointed to Maddy. “Her too.” The woman Jake did not know started to struggle a bit, but Elise did something to the back of her neck and she moaned and went to the ground. She was not unconscious, but whatever Elise had done had rendered her immobile for a moment.
“Get up,” Elise said, and the woman tried to stand again. She had to be helped up but she managed to shuffle to the back of the vehicle where Maddy was helped in and then the other woman shoved in on top of her. The trunk was slammed shut.
“Move,” Bart said and pushed the tall man into the backseat. Jake followed and then Scarface squeezed in next to him. It was tight, but it worked. Elise and Bart got into the front and they drove off. “We’re going to your lab where you’re going to assist us in opening a new portal, Doctor.”
“I won’t,” Jake said.
“Oh, but you will. And you’ll even like it.”
“Nothing you can do to me will make me help you. I’m willing to die so that you cannot continue.”
“Who said anything about doing anything to you?”
~ ~ ~
Lucky had had enough. Sitting here tied up while these psychos tried everything they could to screw up the world was something he was no longer willing to let happen. Besides, he had made a promise to himself that he would not let anything happen to Ginny and the way things were going, if he did nothing, they would both die along with this Maddy and Jake.
He was still a little shell shocked at their journey over the last hours, first through the portal that was basically an opening to a kind of hell, and then watching another of them die and the portal open again with the doctor appearing in his place. The only thing that kept him sane in the void was his ability to somehow remain connected to Ginny. He held her bound hands as they were shoved into that blood, red, void and he never let go. Inside, time seemed to pass without any sense of it and though Ginny was right next to him, her hand clasping his tightly, there were times when he felt alone. Truly alone. A deep, bitter coldness and feeling that he had never, ever met another human being in his life and that he was the only one. Then Ginny’s hand would make its presence known and a relief so great he shed tears would wash over him. Just the touch of her was everything in that lonely void and if she hadn’t been there, he w
ould surely have been lost.
She had told him she felt exactly the same. She cried and reached for him when they exited the other portal, disoriented and unsteady. The shock of arriving at some other location weighing on both of them. She wouldn’t let go until Scarface beat her in the ribs and she cried out in pain. Lucky had tried to fight him, but with his hands bound there had been nothing he could do. A shot to his injured rib was all it took to drop him to his knees in agony.
As he watched Ginny shoved into the trunk of the car, something snapped inside. He waited until the car was moving and made his move. Jake was next to him with Elise in the front passenger seat and John Miller next to Jake against the back door. He sat forward quickly and threw his bound hands over Elise’s head and pulled. She was pinned between his hands and her seatback. She struggled but could not shout out. John reached over and pounded on his forearm, the pain deep and immense, but he refused to let go.
Bart slammed on the brakes and Lucky was carried forward a bit with the momentum, loosening his grip on Elise. She thrust her hand up under his arms and pressed upward. Without any purchase, his arms came up over her head and she was free. Bart pointed his gun at his chest and said, “I have no use for you” He fired the weapon. The explosion in the confines of the car was deafening. Lucky seemed only to notice this first. The pressure on his chest came next. A weakness passed through his body and he suddenly felt very heavy. His arms didn’t want to work and he was even having a hard time making his lungs function just moving air in and out. He watched Elise reach back, open his door, then John shoved him in the face and he was tumbling backward into the street. He struck the pavement with barely any force and as his vision began to fade, he watched the car with Ginny in the trunk drive rapidly away. He couldn’t understand what had just happened and as he blacked out, he felt only failure.
Near Sighted (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 2) Page 22