by Ike Hamill
“I’ve seen the video,” Ryan said. He brushed the dirt from his hands. When he gestured to Niren, the young man tossed what was left of the rabbit skin over to him. Ryan chewed on the glistening fat. “I’ll surpass you in a week, and then it will take years for you to catch up. You’re still vulnerable in a way that I will never be.”
Caleb shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
“That’s fine,” Ryan said. “You don’t need to. Why don’t you go throw yourself at Fairbanks and see how long you survive? Whether or not you believe it, you need me and Niren. Without us, you’ll never make it.”
“He’s right,” Niren said.
Caleb stood and walked away.
“We need a plan,” Niren said.
“Don’t worry. I’ve been planning for this for years. I thought I would have more converts with me, but my plan will still work with the three of us,” Ryan said.
“Two of us, unless we make peace with Caleb,” Niren said.
“He’ll make peace with us. He’ll realize that I’m right before long. His body will let him know.”
“Don’t forget, he saved you.”
Ryan looked at Niren and then laughed. “That’s the only reason I’ve let him survive this long."
Chapter 7
{Guard}
MASON CREPT ALONGSIDE THE building. He stepped on a piece of broken glass and cringed, hoping it wouldn’t alert Henry. Mostly, he was playing a joke, but he was also hoping to catch Henry asleep. Rumor held that Henry would sleep through his nighttime shifts, and that wasn’t fair to the others. They were depending on him to do his job.
He had to press close to the building. The moon was beginning to swing into the western sky. Soon his shadow would be gone.
Mason slid right to the corner and poked his head around.
He blinked at the shadows. What he was seeing didn’t make sense.
The woman’s body wasn’t hanging anymore. Somehow it had fallen to the platform.
Mason hoisted himself up the wall to the platform. He shuffled over to the wall, where Henry’s sleeping shape sat in the chair.
“Henry,” he whispered. He heard no response.
Mason gave up and turned on his light. Henry wasn’t there in the chair. The dark shape was just an old blanket. Mason turned his light towards the door. Maybe Henry was inside, fixing himself some coffee.
A chill ran up Mason’s back as he came to a realization. He turned and swept his light over to the hangman’s noose.
The rope was cut. The body on the platform wasn’t the woman. Mason rushed forward and knelt by Henry’s body. He rolled the man over. Henry’s lifeless eyes stared straight up. Mason fell backwards, onto his butt. He swept his flashlight around. The night was still and empty.
Chapter 8
{Town}
CLEO RAISED HER HANDS above her head to command everyone’s attention. The crowd didn’t heed her. There were a million conversations competing for their ears. Cleo looked down and saw the gavel. She had forgotten about it. In their meetings, they always had a standing rule—they made no percussive noises.
That rule could be abandoned now. This was their first town meeting in the safe harbor. The main floor of one of the buildings had been cleaned up and emptied, so it would fit the standing crowd. Cleo stood on a raised platform so everyone could see her.
She picked up the gavel. When she banged it on the podium, silence fell immediately.
Their heads swiveled every direction. All the citizens were alert for danger. Even in the safe harbor, old habits died hard.
“I’ve called this emergency meeting because of the crime committed last night,” she said. “In good faith, we sentenced Madelyn Ava Clarke to hang by the neck until dead and then stay on display for one week. Last night, her body was stolen.”
She paused to let that sink in.
Their eyes danced. She knew what they were doing—people were looking around to see who was missing, or who might have guilt written on their face.
“Tragically, along with this crime, another upstanding citizen of our community was murdered. Let’s have a moment of silence for Henry Fletcher.”
The people lowered their heads dutifully, but only for a couple of seconds. Henry wasn’t too popular and everyone was curious to find out what would happen next.
As they glanced around, Amelia caught Harper’s eye. Harper nodded to Logan. They had debated who should make the accusation. It couldn’t be Jacob or Harper—they were too closely connected to Madelyn. Brook and Amelia were tied to Ryan.
Logan shot a look at Scarlett. She was the one who stood.
Scarlett was tall and loud. Everyone turned her direction when she bellowed. “I call for the impeachment of Cleo until we find out what happened with her lead commander, Ryan.”
Cleo’s guards were fast. Jack and Penny came around from the left side. Finn and Mason circled right. Harper, Jacob, Wyatt, and Logan moved to intercept the guards before they could silence Scarlett.
“She knows more about this than she’s telling us,” Scarlett said. Cleo began to pound her gavel and demand silence. “Her people were directly involved and she’s not even out there looking for Ryan.”
“Quiet down,” Cleo said. “We have a process.”
A man near the front raised his hand. “I second the motion to impeach Cleo. We have a motion and a second. We demand a vote.”
Several people agreed.
“This is not our process,” Cleo said. “You need a petition and a special meeting.” She had to pound her gavel several more times before the dissent quieted enough for her to be heard. Her eyes went to her guards, who had been stopped by the crowd. It wasn’t only the conspirators—several people had joined Jacob, Harper, and the others in preventing Cleo’s people from silencing Scarlett.
Cleo’s opinion on the topic seemed to evolve fairly quickly.
“In the interest of civil discourse, let’s adjourn this meeting so that people can gather their thoughts. We’ll reconvene in one week. Please disperse immediately.”
In a flash, Cleo was gone.
Dozens of voices competed. Everyone had a different idea of what they should be talking about. A fair number were hung up on discussing the murder from the night before.
Scarlett was the right person to speak for their little group. She was big and intimidating. Nobody dared try to shout her down.
“Listen!” Scarlett said. A group of people clustered around her. “I don’t care much for petitions. I care about doing things. I say we put together a search party right now. Ryan has proven himself to be a dangerous man and we have to hunt him down so we can find out what he’s up to.”
“What about Caleb, and Patton’s little brother? Nobody found them. Where are they at?” someone asked.
“Yeah,” Scarlett agreed. She was as much a follower as a leader. It helped pull the group even tighter. “We should track them down too.”
The group was ready to mobilize, but they didn’t have a plan.
Cleo’s guards began to work the edges of the group, trying to persuade people to disperse. One of them cast a disapproving look at Jacob and tried to pull him away from the others. Jacob wanted to step in with a plan, but he was the wrong one. Everyone knew he was Madelyn’s nephew.
“What about that Elijah character? What happened to him?” someone asked.
Jacob turned fast to see who had spoken. As far as Jacob knew, Elijah’s body was recovered. All the victims had been buried at the same time—he had seen the graves. He stood on his toes to try to find the person. Someone tugged at his arm. He jerked away.
“Jacob,” Harper said. “We should go.”
He turned back, frustrated. “No. I have to see who…”
“We should go.” She pointed. Cleo’s guards had pulled weapons.
# # # # #
They stood in a circle.
“All things considered, I think it went pretty well,” Wyatt said.
Logan cocked his ear
. They all looked at him to see what he would report.
“Nothing,” Logan said. “Just some people walking on the north trail.”
“It wasn’t terrible,” Jacob said. “There’s definitely support. People want answers, and that’s a good thing.”
“But we need to organize,” Brook said. “That should be our top priority. Let’s make a list of everyone we know who gathered around Scarlett.”
“We can get them together for the search party,” Wyatt said.
“Is that the best use of our time?” Harper asked. “Shouldn’t we push to vote out Cleo first?”
“No,” Amelia said. “I think Wyatt is right. If we give them something concrete to do—like tracking down Ryan—we can gain their support more easily. The people who gathered around Scarlett were people of action. They don’t want to sit around and talk about voting. They want to be out there searching.”
Brook shook her head. “What are the chances they’re going to find anything? Just after the building collapsed, the best trackers in town were trying to follow the trail. They didn’t find anything.”
“That’s good though,” Amelia said. “If they don’t find anything, they’ll get more and more frustrated. Their frustration at Ryan will turn into frustration with Cleo. People associate the two.”
Jacob nodded.
“That’s smart,” Harper said. “I’ll make a list.”
Amelia pointed to Logan, Wyatt, and Scarlett. “I think you three should gather the search party. People trust you.”
Chapter 9
{Search}
LOGAN WAVED JACOB FORWARD. He whispered directly into his ear. “You’re the quietest person out here. Circle up and around. Wait until exactly five after, and then we’ll drive up over. You stop them if they go your way.”
Jacob nodded. He left the group of Logan, Brook, and their new comrade, Isaac.
As far as he could tell, Logan’s ears could detect anything. It was flattering to be identified as the quietest person out there. Jacob glanced at his watch. He had less than two minutes to get into position. It was going to be a challenge to move that far in so little time.
Jacob walked as silently as he knew how, planning each step carefully and landing each with precision. His father, Noah, had taught him how to move silently. Because the skill had come to his father with such difficulty, he had made a wonderful teacher.
Jacob reached his position and concentrated on his watch.
From the sound of it, the others had gone early. Jacob sprinted over the hill.
The bear spun with a flash of brown fur. It grunted and swiped at Jacob. He scrambled back from the massive paw. The bear lunged forward and roared.
On the other side of the huge animal, the others ran out from their spots. Brook waved her arms over her head, yelling. Logan led with a stick. He smacked the bear on the back, causing it to spin to face him. The bear swatted the stick and sent it flying from Logan’s hand.
Jacob saw a young man named Isaac raise a rifle to his shoulder. Logan put up a hand to stop Isaac from firing.
The bear roared again and bluffed a charge at Logan.
“Back up,” Logan said. “Give him room. He’ll run.”
At the next bluff, Isaac raised his rifle again.
“Bear!” Jacob shouted. That drew the bear’s focus away from Logan. The animal spun and Jacob regretted making a sound. Logan produced a knife and whipped it at the bear’s rump. When it sunk into the bear’s flesh, he roared and turned back. This time, the bear seemed to be looking for an exit. He found one.
The bear sprinted off into the brush.
They all held still. Logan had his head cocked to listen long after Jacob could no longer hear the animal. Logan knelt and picked up his knife.
They looked down at what had held the bear’s interest.
Isaac turned away.
Logan pulled his lips into a tight line. He picked up his stick and used it to probe the remains.
“This looks like Dave. He tried to kill me once,” Logan said.
Most of the man’s face remained. He only had one wound, in the center of his forehead. The bear had been feeding on his guts.
“It is,” Brook said. She was nowhere near the body. She was looking at what was left of a broken crate. “We were trading this guy crates of vegetables for the stuff he collected. It was part of the experiment. This is one of the crates.”
“Who was doing the trading?” Jacob asked.
“Last people we sent out were Niren and Amelia. They wouldn’t have killed him though,” Brook said. She looked up, piecing together her thoughts. “No. This had to be Ryan or someone working for him. He would have needed more substrate for his experiment.”
“Who cares?” Isaac asked. “We’ve been following the wrong trail. We should go back and join the others. This trail is done.”
“I’m not sure,” Jacob said. He had wandered away from the others, mostly because of the smell. His squeamish reaction had yielded a discovery—there was more to the trail.
Logan joined him. He nodded. “A couple of people went this way. Looks like both directions.” He pointed to outline of two tracks in the soft dirt.
“You’ve got better ears than eyes,” Brook said, joining them. “Let me see.”
They all gathered. Nobody disputed the find.
“It was probably this guy,” Isaac said. “He came here to trade. This is probably a dead end.”
“We’re already here. We might as well make sure,” Logan said.
Isaac looked back over his shoulder. He had never been thrilled to come along on Logan and Brook’s team. It was clear from the beginning that Scarlett was going to take the bigger group northwest of Kappa Three.
“Go back, if you want,” Logan said. “Just be careful of that bear. If he hears one of us split off from the group, he’ll likely attack.”
Isaac rolled his eyes. “No. We should stick together.”
They followed the tracks.
# # # # #
They followed the tracks until they ran out. Jacob knelt and looked at a spot where several footprints were clustered.
“Looks like someone stopped here and then turned around,” Jacob said.
Logan scanned the trees.
“There!” Brook said.
Logan crouched down a little to see the world from her height. Isaac was the next person to see it.
“Looks like a red vehicle,” Isaac said.
They fanned out and moved forward.
“That’s Dave’s vehicle,” Logan said. “I rode in it.”
Jacob approached while the others hung back. When he had circled it once and found no trace of anyone, he waved the others forward.
“Don’t touch it,” Jacob said. “It could be rigged or something.”
“It’s not,” Logan said. “I’ve ridden in it. He usually left it running. He had some kind of machine to scare away the Hunters.”
“Get out of here,” Isaac said.
“No, seriously,” Logan said. He didn’t wait for anyone to agree, he walked forward and tugged on the handle of the rear hatch. The lights flashed when the door swung up. Logan jumped back. When the vehicle didn’t do anything else, Logan smiled and walked forward again. He pushed open the hatch the rest of the way and the others joined him at the back.
“What is this stuff?” Jacob asked.
They all looked to Logan. He shrugged. “Ask her,” he said, pointing to Brook.
She picked up the end of a machine that had a long hose. “We made a deal with Dave to collect substrate. Maybe one of these is the machine he used for it. I don’t know. I never saw him work.”
“Let’s take this back to town,” Jacob said. “Then maybe we can figure out what this stuff does.”
“And we’ll have proof that something was going on out here,” Brook said.
“I know how to drive,” Jacob said. He moved around to the driver’s door. “At least I should. I’ve been told how to.”
“This isn’t like a regular vehicle,” Logan said.
# # # # #
“Someone was here,” Wyatt said. “That’s for sure.” He looked closely at a bone he had found in the little clearing. He tossed it on the ground.
“Could you keep your voice down?” Harper asked. “They could still be around here somewhere.”
“If they didn’t hear her big feet stomping, they’re not going to hear my voice,” Wyatt said. He pointed at Scarlett.
Scarlett was poking around a big area of turned dirt. It looked like a very shallow grave that someone had left behind. She looked up and stared at Wyatt with a cold expression.
Amelia threw up her hands with frustration. “Can you see where they went?”
“We’re not trackers,” Wyatt said. “That’s their specialty.” He pointed at the pair of young men who were standing at the rear of the group.
Andrew and Jayden looked at each other.
“Oh, now you want our help?” Jayden asked. “I thought you just brought us along so you could push us out of the way because the trail was so obvious.”
“Yes,” Amelia said. “Please. Do you think this was the people we’re looking for? And can you see where they went?”
Andrew pushed his hair back and glanced around the clearing. “It was definitely people. It’s impossible to tell if it was Ryan, but we can definitely say that rabbit wasn’t chewed on by a mountain lion or coyotes. Where did they go? Everywhere. There are tracks that way. There’s a little trail here that was used several times. This one probably leads to either water or where they went to the bathroom. Someone camped here for a couple of days, so it’s safe to say that there are tracks that go every direction besides the big, obvious trail that we followed here.”
Amelia nodded. She started again, slowly. “Do you have some idea of how many were here, or where they went when they left?”
Andrew looked to Jayden.