The Trilogy of the Void: The Complete Boxed Set

by Peter Meredith

  "Shush," she ordered in a kindly voice gently putting his hand down by his side. "I'll make sure that you're going to live first." Abraham's wound had perforated his upper arm, completely passing through the bicep and she didn't need to feel about in the wound to know that his brachial artery had been damaged. The spray pattern of blood was like writing on the wall, literally. With him still protesting weakly, she took from his military style web belt a sterile field dressing. This she stuffed into the wound without regard to his pain and then cinched it down tight with the light green sling that came with it. He groaned in response and she only pulled it tighter, before tying it atop of the wound. She then laid him on his back and propped a couch cushion under his feet to lessen the degree of shock that he was very likely even then experiencing.

  Now she would go check on Jake, or so she thought.

  "Mmmmmh!" Gayle Jern had worked herself to a kneeling position and was looking over the wall.

  "Mom!" Jake was forgotten momentarily as Talitha hopped over the wall. A long dreadful looking knife lay on the floor and she used it to unbind her mother. "Are you ok? Are you hurt at all?"

  "Only my hands...I think they're...never mind. Are you alright? You're all..." Gayle looked at her daughter with wonder and dismay. Talitha couldn't have looked too good.

  "I'm..." she was about to say fine, but in truth she was nowhere close. The wound in her neck wasn't natural, the edges of it felt dead and she feared that it would never heal. However, she wasn't going to burden her mother with that information, at least not then. "I'll be fine. I'm a little worried about Will. A bullet grazed his head, but he's got tough skull. You know how hardheaded he's always been." Talitha's pathetic attempt at humor had been predicated on how her mother had looked to almost faint at the news of her son being shot.

  "And Katie? Do you know where she is?"

  If her mother's desperate imploring tone hadn't been that of one begging for good news, she might have told the truth. Instead, all she could stutter was, "I, uh... I, uh..."

  "What? Where is she, do you know?"

  Talitha was able to answer this with honesty and she shook her head, no. "Mom...listen to me. There's a man in the desert. One of the soldiers. He may need my help, ok? Wait here. Keep an eye on Will and that man there." She pointed at the Hispanic, who lay curled in a ball clutching his face.

  When her mother nodded, she ran off in a stumbling manner, thankful not to have to answer the question concerning Katie, because just then it felt like a mistake having traded lives the way she had. Talitha feared how her mom would react when she heard the news about her youngest daughter. The little girl was special to Gayle...to all of them.

  "Jacob?" she whispered, tracking the scent of the man. Behind a glump of bushes she found the man on laying on his side. He didn't look good, even worse than Abe. "It's Talitha," she said kneeling down next to him.

  "Did we win?" came his whispered reply.

  "Yeah. Quiet down, don't talk." She tried to examine his wound, but there wasn't anything to see. Other than a little hole in the hollow of his neck, his injuries were all internal.

  "My chest... it feels full. I'm having a lot of trouble breathing...and I can barely talk."

  "I know, that's why I told you to hush." Talitha looked at the wound again, but had no idea what to do. Though she knew anatomy and physiology, she was clueless past the basics of first aid. "I think it would be best if I moved you to the house. I think..."

  Just then, two gunshots went off in the house. Talitha was up in a flash, but Jake stopped her, "Wait."

  "No. I'll be right back." Another gunshot thundered out, and with it, Jake looked to relax. "Was that a signal?" she asked and Jake nodded. As if to affirm his answer, headlights flicked on in the direction of the road and an engine roared into life.

  "It's the priest," Jake whispered.

  This response was a bit of a letdown. Though Vogel was a smart and competent man, the wounded men needed a surgeon and fast. "This may be uncomfortable." Talitha bent down with her good arm, grabbed the harness of Jake's web gear and began dragging the man at the quickest pace that she could manage back to house. After the night she had, the fifty yards felt like a thousand and she was huffing and light headed by the time she had her charge pulled into the blazingly bright living room. Father Vogel had beat her to the house and was in the process of examining Abraham's wound.

  "Tal," Will was sitting up against the couch looking slightly cross-eyed and dazed. "Where's Katie?"

  "Not...now." Her breath was ragged in her chest. "Where's the...phone? We have to call an ambulance." This was greeted with an awkward silence. An ambulance meant the police would soon be involved and there were plenty of ramifications to that. "Jake is going to die if he doesn't get help soon."

  "I'll call," her mother volunteered before hurrying from the room.

  As soon as she had left, Will whispered, "Tal, where's Katie? Is she alive?"

  Her heart seemed to shrivel at the question, yet stoutly she relayed her story, watching all the while as her brother's head sunk lower upon his chest with each passing syllable. She finished lamely with, "I'm sorry."

  "My soul for Katie's?" Will asked in misery, ignoring the fact that his wasn't the only one that had been saved in the bargain. "You don't know what a bad trade that is. Katie was so smart and sweet and beautiful...and fun...and ..."

  "And so are you, and so is mom!" Talitha, who never liked her judgment questioned, began to get angry. "Also what about Jake and Abraham, what about them and their souls? That's four souls for one and besides...we still have a chance to save her. It has only been what, twenty minutes since I left her? More than likely we still have time to save her."

  "Amy has my baby?" Gayle stood letting the wall hold her up. She looked on the verge of collapse.

  Talitha only glanced her way for a second before dropping her eyes, nearly overwhelmed with guilt. "Yes. But you would've been so proud of her. She was very brave and strong."

  "I am proud of her, just like I'm proud of you, Talitha."

  The words struck her like a slap and she blinked in surprise and then she blinked harder to fight off the tears that began doubling her vision. They came regardless and as she cried, her mother came and held her. This only made her cry harder.

  A minute passed and then Will called them to their senses, "We have to leave. The police are coming. Many of them, and if they catch us here, we'll never save Katie. Mom, I'll call later when..."

  "I'm coming too. No don't give me that look!" Gayle was suddenly angry. "You don't see yourself the way I do. Look around us. Look at your poor father! Look at your sister! Look in a damn mirror! My family is being beaten down, one after another and there's no way I'm going to sit by all helpless and let it happen any longer."

  "Yes, Mom, you're right," Will replied. In a much quieter voice he asked, "What's wrong with dad? Did he get stabbed with the sword?"

  Talitha had known right away he had. She could smell the wound from the moment she walked in. The odor of corruption was as peculiar and singular as it was stomach churning; it matched the sick smell that emanated from her own neck. Her mom nodded, confirming what had been obvious to her.

  "Then he's coming as well," Will declared in a commanding tone. "No hospital will be able to save him if we can't. Father Vogel, please help Talitha with moving my dad. Go to the garage, right through there," he pointed past the kitchen. "We'll take the Jimmy. Abe, the first ambulance will arrive in eleven minutes, will you and Jake be ok for that long?"

  Though he looked as though he were about to pass out again, the man nodded. "Yeah, Jake is one tough guy, don't worry. I need two things before you go. My real I.D. is in the car... I'm CIA and the I.D. will save me a bunch of tough questions. And...Zeke is out there still. If he's still alive, please bring him in here."

  Will agreed that he would honor these two requests, but as he could barely walk without falling over, it was Gayle who fetched the I.D. and Talitha who found Zeke.
He was quite dead, having been shot through the heart. He was a sad sight and it affected Talitha more than she had expected. She closed his once pretty blue eyes and since there was no one about, kissed the man on his cooling lips. It seemed like a fitting farewell.

  Chapter 23

  Will

  Six minutes later: "Pull over...there's a dirt road. Do you see it? Go up it a bit and then kill the engine and shut down the lights." Will knew the emergency vehicles would be led by a state patrolmen and sure enough within seconds, red and blue lights danced in the desert night looking gay and festive rather than urgent. More lights were strung out in a long line behind the first and the Jimmy sat dark against the dark and all but invisible.

  "How do we find Katie? Can you see where she's going to be, Will?" his mother asked. She sat in the front seat next Father Vogel, rubbing her hands together constantly. This had as much to do with anxiety as it did with pain. Where the numbness hadn't faded, pins and needles of returning circulation burned her miserably.

  In the back seat, next to a scary looking, blood covered Talitha, Will answered, "No, Amy has placed some sort of spell over herself to keep me from seeing her future and that seems to extend to anyone near her." He spoke in a whisper. Everyone else's voice seemed normally pitched, but his own was like a shriek in his mind. So far, this was his only real after effect of being shot in the head, that is except for the double vision, nausea, dizziness, and whomping migraine.

  "Maybe she didn't put a spell on herself, maybe she put a hex on you or us," his mother replied with a touch of mania raising her voice. "I think she cursed us, or maybe her mom did. Can't you feel it? Nothing has been right for years. I mean, take your father for instance and Talitha. All this time they've been under some horrible curse. And now Lisa too! And you also, Will. Your poor face..." she began to cry and seemed near to hysterics.

  "Mom! We'll figure this out, ok? Calm down." Will looked around for support, but no one else said anything. Talitha was oddly quiet and sat with her eyes closed looking as if she were meditating rather than asleep, while Father Vogel looked completely stunned and had from the moment he had walked into the house and had seen the place littered with bodies and sprayed with blood.

  "I don't know if I can be calm." Gayle hugged her hands to herself. "I can't stop thinking about my little Katie and what's happening to her. It feels like my chest is going to explode. We have to find her and save her, please. Can you do anything?" She touched the priest on his arm and he looked away from the dwindling lights at the woman.

  The priest was very pale. Even in the dark his skin seemed to stand out as whiter than anyone's. "There are people working on finding out where Amy may be going. We should find a phone as soon as possible."

  "It's safe now to go," Will whispered. "Keep heading east and in about ten miles, on the right is... a, uh..." In his mind, Will could picture the gas station but the name escaped him.

  "Texaco," Talitha supplied, still with eyes closed. "And don't touch that. Just leave it alone."

  Will's hand had gone to the makeshift bandage that his sister had wrapped around his head. It felt heavy, like a water-laden log sat upon his shoulders. "Texaco, right. They have a phone booth there."

  For the rest of the trip to the gas station, no one spoke, or so Will assumed. He fell asleep, resting his head on his sister's slim shoulder and only woke when the priest exited the car and Talitha called out to him, sounding very much like a kid begging to her dad, "Can you please get some milk and a sandwich and Doritos, if they have any?" Gradually and with small groans escaping from his throat, he pulled himself up; Talitha gave him a guilty smile. "I need nutrients."

  "It's ok." There was no way Will could eat.

  From the front seat, their mother looked back. "Will? I don't trust myself to stand just yet; can you look back and check on your father?"

  Turning his head was a chore and elicited more groans. In the cargo area behind the second row of seats, William Jern's long slim form lay curled around Lisa's small one. He looked so terribly old, while she, in the longest sleep of her life, appeared younger than her years. The dichotomy in their appearances didn't end just there. She seemed at peace and looked as if he could wake her with just a kiss, while his features held pain. The muscles in his face were taunt, frozen into a grim expression of agony.

  Will could only look for a second before turning away. "There's no change."

  "What about his wound?" She seemed afraid of her own question.

  With a grunt, Will turned back and lifted up his father's shirt, "It doesn't look good. The black around the edges is spreading." The hole where the blade had torn into him gaped large and ugly, all about it the skin was blackened. He couldn't look on it for long either and after only a second covered the wound again.

  "Necrosis," Talitha whispered. Her face told Will plainly that she feared greatly for her father.

  Gayle saw the look as well and doubled down on it. "What does that mean?"

  Talitha took a deep breath before answering, "It's simply the death of tissue, such as skin or muscle and once it's dead it can't heal itself. But the wound can be debrided and once it's done then healing can occur. Will, the necrosis bordered the wound by about an inch before, how much is it now?"

  "At least double that."

  Shock widened his mother's eyes and etched a line across her brows; mutely she turned back in her seat. For many minutes, the Jimmy was quiet until a faint siren came to them. An ambulance followed a minute later by another came streaking across the desert heading off to the east. The silence and tranquility of the night settled again on them and they each sat back lost in thought. Will glanced at Talitha...she looked to have bathed in blood. Could some of it be Katie's? With a shiver at the thought, he asked his sister. "What happened to your neck?"

  "There was a Draugr...do you recall the thing last night that Luke had become? Amy created one of those and it stabbed me with the sword."

  This didn't ring true and it showed on his face and in his words. "Tal, that thing last night was tough, but...but I can't believe that it could do that to you."

  "It did. The power of the witch determines the power of the Draugr. I get the feeling that the witch from last night was nothing more just a fortune telling gypsy than any sort of real witch."

  During this short conversation a frantic excitement began to light a fire in their mother's eyes. "Tal, how did you live when you were stabbed? I mean you're awake and talking, is there a spell or whatever you can use on your dad? He was stabbed too and...he's not dead, go feel him, you can hear his heart beating and everything. He's still alive, but he's gone at the same time..." Gayle's voice just sort of trailed away as Talitha lowered her head shaking it back and forth.

  "No, I only lived by accident. The Draugr stabbed me but pulled the blade out before my soul could be fully torn from me. I'm sorry about dad. I'm sorry for everything." Tears ran across the dried and cracked blood on her face.

  Will reached out and held her hand, and was just about to speak when Father Vogel emerged from the store carrying two large brown bags and wearing a grim look. All eyes were on him and it seemed as if none in the car dared to breath.

  "I got you a ham and cheese, it was the freshest looking one," he said handing back both of the brown bags. He then gripped the wheel with both hands and stared out the front windshield it was a moment before he spoke and they all expected the worst. "According to the bishop, there are forty-six possible sites within an hour of our location that Amy could have taken Katie."

  "Forty-six!" Will exploded, sending a dagger of pain deep into his head.

  "Yes and if we expand that further to two hours, the number almost triples. Of course, we don't know for certain if the criteria we have established is..."

  "Shut up. Just shut up," Will growled. "There's no way. Forty-six places in three hours and thirty-six minutes. It can't happen."

  His mother looked practically dead from defeat but said, "You don't know that, Will. We
could get lucky."

  A laugh of derision leapt from his throat and he didn't even try to stop it. "Lucky? Since when have we ever been lucky? We're cursed. You said so yourself, and I for one believe it. Talitha does too and I bet wherever Katie is, she would agree as well."

  Oddly, Father Vogel smiled. "We both know you're not going to give up hope. Now look at this list I jotted down. Which should we go to first?"

  How badly Will wanted to shred up the list, instead he closed his eyes for a second before speaking in the calmest voice he could manage. "Talitha, when Henny opened the gate, how long did it take, do you remember?"

  She shrugged. "It was so hard to tell, she had this shiny thing and I was forced to..."

  He held up a hand. "Just ballpark it for me, please."

  "Twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes?"

  "I was wrong then. At the most, we have an hour and a half to check forty-six places. You see now why, I'm so upset? Amy's not going to wait till the stroke of midnight just so we can swoop in and save the day. She's gonna get this done as soon as possible!" Will's voice had crept up and he ended practically shouting.

  "So you're saying we should try one of the closer ones," Vogel replied with annoying calm. Will put his head in his hands, feeling the pounding of his blood increase in tempo.

  Talitha piped up in a small voice, "It's worse than you realize, Will. Amy has at least a thirty-minute head start on us, which means we have only an hour to find her. But..." she paused and glanced at her brother. "We still have you. Could you try to look at the future of these addresses? You should be able to see all but the one she is at. We'll use the process of elimination."

  "I could try," Will said excitedly. "Let's see, twenty-thirty Valencia court... twenty-thirty Valencia court," he closed his eyes and reached out thinking twenty-thirty Valencia court. Nothing happened. He tried to relax, rolling his shoulders a few times and then made a second attempt. Still it was only blackness or maybe blankness that he was able to view. "It's not working, I can't see anything," he said dejectedly.