“She looked unconscious or something,” Asclepius said in a bored tone.
“Where the hell are you?” Ben snapped.
“Some big building to the east of that main building we went into. It’s metal and pretty massive. There’s something underground here, too, but that’s not where Big Bad Judas is being kept. He’s on an IV drip in this main room covered with a mosquito net. That Shawn guy you’ve been looking for is puttering around here, too. He’s a bit more off than I remember.”
Ben ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket. “He’s that way,” he said, pointing to the looming, metal building to their left. “He’s with your friend, and he said my sister was taken somewhere unconscious.”
“I knew it,” Mark said. “Let’s go.”
Before Ben could argue tactics, or even a basic game plan, Mark was moving with a speed Ben couldn’t match. The distance between the grove and the building was short, but before Ben was even half-way, Mark was inside the door.
Feeling alone and somewhat terrified for his life, Ben raced to the front door and walked in to see Mark jabbing someone in the arm with the syringe while another tall, dark-haired man was falling slowly to the ground.
“I’m not going to ask how the hell you were able to do that,” Ben gasped, trying to catch his breath, “but just let me know if there are any others around.”
“Hello boys,” came Asclepius’s voice.
Ben turned to see Asclepius sitting in a chair next to a bed surrounded by mosquito netting. Beyond the netting, Ben could make out a prone body on a bed, an ancient looking IV stand, and a small monitor that was omitting the faintest beep.
Mark stood up from the fallen body, his hands trembling, and he dropped the syringe. “Oh God, okay, we found him.”
“Now the trick is getting him out before they shoot your ass,” Asclepius said, puffing on his cigar. “They wanted you here, you know.”
“So our friend said,” Mark replied as he crossed the room to the bed. “Did you figure out who she is?”
“Nike,” Asclepius said with a shrug. “I should have figured, she was always such a bitch.”
“She’s powerful,” Mark said, running his hands down the netting.
“She thinks she’s powerful,” Asclepius said with a shrug. “Sure, she could kick your ass,” he added, nodding to Ben, “but she’s not as great as she used to be.”
“Where is she now?” Ben asked, stepping around the fallen gods. “Where did they take my sister?”
“Downstairs, I think,” Asclepius said. “They took my god-booting juice, so if we’re going to get out of here before they come back, you’d better have a plan.”
“I do,” Ben said, and with that, he took out his gun. Footsteps were starting to echo down a hall, sounding louder than usual from the metal roof. “How many are there?”
“Three,” Asclepius said. “They’re going to kill you.”
“No, I’m going to kill them,” Ben said as he tiptoed over to a spot with a clear shot of the door. “Can they read minds?”
“I don’t think so, but really, what do I know,” Asclepius said with a chuckle. “Just don’t get this body killed, please?”
Ben ignored him, crouched with one knee touching the floor, and he aimed. With one shot, the first man who walked in the room was down, bullet hitting him directly in the forehead. The second person went down with two shots, one in the neck and one in the chest. When Ben looked down, he saw the first man he’d taken out was the man from the hospital that he’d seen get up out of his bed. He felt a pang of regret as he watched the blood pool out from the bullet wound.
“How long until they can find another body?” Ben asked in a hurry as he stood up, holstering his gun.
“Oh days,” Asclepius said with a wave of his hand. “I wouldn’t worry about that. I’d worry about the other ones with big fucking rifles coming to shoot you. There’s at least ten more around here somewhere.”
Ben looked at Mark who was leaning over the comatose man, whispering quietly to him. “We need to get my sister and get the hell out of here,” he all-but shouted, trying to get Mark’s attention.
“I don’t think you’re going anywhere,” came a voice from the door. Ben whirled around and saw the person he knew as Shawn Thompson, clothed in white toga-like robes, step into the room. Ben had his gun out, pointed at Shawn’s head, but he remembered the repeated claims that Shawn was not one of them.
“I need you to tell me where my sister is,” Ben said through gritted teeth. “I don’t want to shoot you, but believe me, I will.”
Shawn held up a steady hand, his eyes fluttering closed. “If your sister is here, it’s because she chose to be here. She wants to become one with the light.”
Ben gripped his gun tighter and took a step towards Shawn. “Enough,” he snapped.
Shawn opened his eyes and looked over at Mark, who was fiddling with a machine next to the bed and he began to look alarmed. “Get away from him,” he said, his voice tight and far less serene than it had been. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“We’re taking him and leaving. You’ve kidnapped a man, started a cult, taken my sister against her will. Those are felonies, my friend, and they’re going to earn you a very large stretch of prison time.”
Shawn’s face pinked at the cheeks and his eyes narrowed, growing hard and cold. “You’re not taking this away from me. I was chosen!” he shouted.
Ben shook his head. “You weren’t chosen. You’re just a foolish kid who is in way over your head. I don’t want to hurt you, so do us all a favor and-”
But before Ben could finish, Shawn reached behind his robes. Ben knew the gesture all too well, and before Shawn had a chance to aim the previously concealed gun, Ben fired, and Shawn dropped to the ground. The bullet struck him in the chest, and with eyes open, Shawn’s body hit the floor with a loud thud. He shuddered a little, as blood stained the white robes, and after a second, all motion stopped.
“Shit,” Ben muttered, rubbing his face. “Shit. Shit! We need to get my sister and get the hell out of here. This is a complete disaster!”
Before anyone could respond, every light in the room went dark. Suddenly, a loud, wailing alarm went off. Bright, white lights began to flash in the corners of the large room, and the piercing sound encompassed every thought in the room.
“Don’t think we have time for that,” Asclepius said and got up off his seat. “I’m bailing. You two had better figure your shit out.”
“I’m not going without Abby,” Ben shouted over the noise.
Mark stood up from his crouched position beside the bed, and hoisted the unconscious man over his shoulders, carrying him as though he weighed nothing. “We need to get in the car. Now.”
“Not without Abby,” Ben yelled. “That was the absolute and only reason I am here right now.” He would have continued, but the phone in his pocket began to buzz. Against rational thought, Ben pulled out the phone and answered call from the number he didn’t recognize. “Yes,” he yelled, pressing his other ear closed to attempt to hear the person over the alarms.
“It’s me,” came the groggy voice of his sister. “Ben… are you there?”
“Abby?” he said, not quite believing it was her.
“Look, I’m sick, I can’t move, and you have to go,” Abby breathed. “I’m… I can’t get out, okay. Whatever you gave me… it’s not… I think I’m dying.”
“Where are you!? I need to get you to a hospital,” Ben cried, rushing to the door where the dead men lay. “Abby!”
“I don’t really know where I am. I woke up in a room somewhere. There are men here, they can’t get out. They’re them, Ben, the gods. You have to get Judas and Mark out of there now.”
“Abby, listen to me, I can take them. I’ve already killed two, and I’ll take out as many as I need to, to get to you.”
Abby was silent for a long time. “I started the bomb evacuation,” she said, her words more slurred than before. “It’s going t
o blow up, this place. Go Ben, okay. I’m dead anyway. She told me, when she took me, that I’m dead anyway. Better to take her out, too. Just run, okay.”
“Abby, this isn’t funny anymore!” Ben shouted. Asclepius suddenly had Ben’s arm and Ben turned to him. “I think there’s a bomb,” Ben gasped. “We’ve got to get her out.”
“You’ve gotta run. Looks like four minutes. Not sure the range. I’m fading pretty fast, Benny. I’m sorry,” her voice wavered on the line, and then there was silence.
It suddenly felt like Ben was outside of his body. Asclepius was carrying him out of the room, and he could see himself, screaming, fighting the impossibly strong man as he was dragged from the building, screaming his sister’s name.
There were people outside, running, shouting, cars pulling out at break-neck speeds, and the alarms were sounding, but Ben didn’t register any of it. He was floating, confused. He didn’t feel his head smack the side of the car as Asclepius shoved him in the seat and jumped behind the wheel. He didn’t really notice being jostled around as Asclepius slammed on the gas, steering around people as they ran, desperate to get away from the threat.
Ben didn’t register much until they were well over a mile from the gate, and the whole place blew. The car shook with the blast, and hot air surged through their open windows, searing Ben’s face, and the smell of smoke was suddenly overwhelming.
Asclepius slammed on the breaks, waiting out the blast, and when cool air replaced hot, Ben knew it was over. He threw the door open and stepped outside, but no one stopped him. He squinted up at the billowing smoke rising into the air and he knew then, it was over. Everything left in that compound was dead.
In the distance there were cars all over, stopped, people staring at the place where they had been healed and saved. Everything was flames, smoke and ash, and everyone was gone. Abby was gone. It took only a minute for Ben to realize it, but it felt like an eternity. The wave of anger and fury hit him like a tsunami, knocking him down to his knees. He hit the dirt, his hands landing on old, dead grass, and the cry that came from his mouth wasn’t human. It was anguish and anger in its purest form.
Mark came around the car, though Ben hadn’t seen him, and he put his hand on Ben’s back. Ben wanted to fight him, to turn and hit him, to hurt him, to cause him pain because he knew the moment he looked up, it was all going to be real, and she was dead, and he had failed her.
He didn’t realize he was crying through his anger until he saw the drops hitting the dust below his face. They were pouring out like a river, turning the dirt to mud, splattering on his hands. He was sobbing, but it didn’t sound like him, the aching sound as his body contorted with his grief.
“We need to go,” Mark said quietly. “Ben I’m so sorry, but we have to go. Please.”
Ben finally looked up at Mark, at the ancient face, even if he still didn’t quite believe it, and he smiled. “This is what you meant, isn’t it? This is what you meant when you said war and bloodshed. This is what you bring.”
Mark bowed his head. “There’s nothing I can say that can comfort you.”
Ben laughed, shaking his head as the tears poured out. “She died for you, you realize. To save your friend, to stop… to stop whatever this is, whatever it was. She… god,” he breathed. He wanted to say more, but his throat seized and the words wouldn’t come. He knew he should get in the car, but it was over now. She was gone, a war had been averted, and it was over.
Forty-four
Ben hadn’t cried again after he stood up. The tears were dry and he was composed by the time the authorities arrived, and although no one was pleased that Ben had gone off on his own, when they realized what happened, no one said anything.
The detective on scene brought Ben the news once the rescue team had finished on the site. “A few people survived by ducking into bunkers, but they were pretty badly burned. It looks like the entire compound was rigged with explosives, and they did manage to find a couple of fire proof lockers with hand-written plans by this Thompson guy explaining how they were going to take everyone out.”
Ben couldn’t remember the detective’s name, but he did appreciate the matter-of-fact tone he was using, because Ben couldn’t take comfort right then. “Did they find bodies?”
“Not many remains,” the detective said. He cleared his throat and offered a tense half-smile. “Anyone at the center of the blast was nearly vaporized instantly.”
Ben gave a blank nod. “Right. Okay.”
“Look, I’m sorry, and if we find anything at all…”
Ben held up his hand. “She’s um… she called me right before everything um…” he trailed off and cleared his throat. “She’d been given some sort of drug, she said. She was already on her way out.”
“I’m sorry,” the detective repeated.
“Can I email you my reports?” Ben asked, his voice growing painfully tight. He needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. Mark and Asclepius had already taken the unconscious man off scene, to a local hotel the police had set up for any of the survivors who didn’t need hospital treatment. Ben had the keys to a patrol car and the directions to the hotel in his hands.
“Yes,” the detective said quickly. “I’ve already spoken to your chief, and he said you were acting under orders from another county, under the advice of a detective Stella Horvath. I don’t believe there will be any reprimands, so that’s something.”
Ben let out a dead laugh. “Yeah. Something.” Without giving a proper goodbye, Ben turned and walked to the stale smelling car and got in. The officer who drove this car was a fast food junkie. Old bags and cups were stuffed on the floor, and it reeked of old ketchup and tartar sauce.
Fighting down a gag, Ben stepped on the gas and mechanically followed the directions he’d been given. The hotel wasn’t far, and it was nicer than the one they’d stopped at before reaching town. He parked the car and stared up at the numbers on the door. Beyond the door reading two-oh-six, he knew Mark and Asclepius, or possibly Greg, sat there with the man on the bed. The man whose name Ben still couldn’t say.
His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his fingers went numb and his knuckles turned white. He fought for a moment to remember the day before, the day when he was pissed because his sister was acting like a fool and going off on her own. The day he thought this would be a simple task of walking into a place, chastising her for being a brat, and putting her in the back of his car.
He wasn’t sure what a future without her was going to be. Ben had spent most of his life chasing her from place to place, cleaning up her messes, wiping her tears when people broke her heart. Ben didn’t know who he was outside of being her big brother. He was a cop, yes, a damn good detective, in fact, but mostly he was Abby’s brother, and nearly all of his decisions had been made with her in mind.
Ben sat there in the empty parking lot and let out a small laugh. She was gone. He knew he couldn’t face the pain but that didn’t matter yet. The pain would be waiting for him whenever he was ready to let it in. It wasn’t going anywhere, it was there to stay.
His phone buzzed, and Ben picked it up. It was a text. He was terrified to open it, to see the recipient. His mind raced. Maybe she’d gotten out. Maybe there was a safety bunker, a bomb shelter. Anything. Asclepius had sworn up and down they wouldn’t waste her body, they needed her.
The number was a San Diego number. It was Stella. It read, I heard, I’m sorry.
Ben felt the pressure in his chest increase and he thought for a moment he would suffocate. He got out of the car, his body moving slowly, stilted, like a machine, and he went to his own private room. It was stale and quiet, but it was clean. The bed was softer than before, and he collapsed on it.
His phone was ringing again, but this time he turned it on silent and closed his eyes. The darkness surrounded him as he curled up in that cold, empty motel room, and while the grief waited, Ben slept.
~*~
An hour passed before Asclepius announced tha
t it was time for him to go, and then Greg’s body dropped down on the second bed, lying still for so long Mark thought Greg would be unconscious for the rest of the night.
Yehuda hadn’t moved, aside from a few quiet groans in his slumber. With the IV out of his arm, his color was coming back, and his breathing was even and steady. He was clean, as he had been in the hospital, his hair long, curly and his chin dark with the growing beard.
Mark was tense, and frankly he was sad. He knew something was going wrong the moment he heard the alarms, but even in the worst case, he hadn’t imagined that Abby would sacrifice everything to get Yehuda, Mark and Ben to safety.
His chest was tight, his eyes aching from tears that wouldn’t fall. He did his best to remember that she’d done it for what she believed in, but every time someone died for his cause, every time blood was shed, Mark mourned.
“What’s going on?” came a groggy voice, and Mark turned to see Greg finally sitting up, rubbing the injured wrist with his other hand.
“It’s over,” Mark said with a small shrug. He glanced over at Yehuda who had still not moved.
“What do you mean, it’s over? Where are Ben and Abby?”
At the sound of her name, Mark felt his hands begin to tremble, and he couldn’t meet Greg’s eyes. “Ben’s somewhere. Possibly still at the scene, I’m not sure. Abby um…” his throat tightened and for a moment, he couldn’t go on. “Abby didn’t make it out.”
Greg’s eyes went wide and he stood up. “What do you means she didn’t make it out? Make it out of what?”
His voice heavy with grief, Mark told the entire story, sparing no detail. When he finished, a few tears had fallen and he brushed them away with an impatient hand. “By the time I had a real idea of what was happening it was too late. We had moments to get out safely, and even then, we barely made it out unscathed.”
Greg put his hand over his face and dropped into one of the chairs near the window. “How many were lost?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think the officers on scene got an accurate count, at least not by the time we were sent here. I know the evacuation alarms started with about five minutes to get to safety, so I’d imagine not everyone made it out alive.”
The Awakening (The Judas Curse Book 1) Page 35