by Connor Mccoy
“Eight, or maybe ten,” she said, a furrow between her brows. “When the lights were on I was focused on the other end of the basement. I think there is a way out over there.”
“I wonder why they are so focused on making sure all the cells are functioning?” he asked. “Maybe Terror inspects them. He might insist they remain in working order.”
“Or maybe they are down there torturing Mia and Christian,” she gasped. “We should at least go listen at the door.” She was up and at the door before he could speak.
He got up and drew her gently away from the door, bringing her back to the bed.
“I’ll go listen at the door,” he said. “But I can’t think of any reason they would want to torture any of you. There’s no information to be obtained.”
“But maybe they’re using it as a way to keep me in line,” Sally said, her eyes wide.
“Look at yourself. You won’t be doing any climbing for a very long time. There is no need to torture Mia and Christian. But stay here, and I will see what I can find out. Okay? You’ll stay put?”
She nodded, and he headed out the door.
Chapter Twenty
Glen paused at the bottom of the staircase, listening. All the sounds still were coming from the basement. He slipped silently into the kitchen, walking along the wall in hope the boards wouldn’t creak.
Anthony was in the kitchen, sitting at the table. He put his finger to his lips, got up and led Glen out of the kitchen and around the house to stand near the street. The street lights were not lit, that would have been a waste of power, and there was no moon. The faint light in the sky did not affect the town as of yet, so the two men barely could see each other’s faces.
“Sally is worried they are torturing Christian and Mia,” Glen said. “She sent me to check.”
Anthony snorted. “Like we have time for torturing children. Terror is expecting an influx of captives this evening. He wants all the cells operable. So my crew is down there repairing the damage that girl did. They also will check all the others. Is she okay? The girl who broke the bars?”
“She’ll be fine,” Glen said. “It will hurt for a while, but she’ll heal.”
“Brave one, that,” Anthony said darkly. “She is not easily subdued. She should learn when to wait.”
“They are young,” Glen replied. “Barely into their twenties. They haven’t learned the value of patience.” He rubbed his chin. “I’m not feeling too patient myself. I want to get them out of here before anything else happens. Can you help us get away from here?”
“Not without blowing my cover,” Anthony said. “But I’ll give you the means to escape. I have a spare key that works to open both the cells and the bulkhead in the basement. I will make sure I have an alibi so I won’t get blamed.”
Glen felt Anthony press something into his hand. It was warm from Anthony’s pocket, and Glen slipped it into his.
“I will go get the girl and bring her to you,” Anthony said. “Listen at the bulkhead door. When the others leave the basement, the light will go out. You’ll be able to see that. The door is not tight. Go in, release your friends and run to the end of the road, north. There is an exit there. Don’t fall into the ditch. Skirt the wall, staying close until you see the path into the woods on the east. From there it is up to you. We’re running out of time. I will get the girl. You stay here.”
He faded away, almost silently. Glen stayed where he was, and in less than five minutes the front door opened, and Sally came down the steps. She hesitated, looking left and right.
“I’m here,” Glen breathed, realizing she couldn’t see him after the bright light inside the house.
He took her hand, leading her around the house to the bulkhead. The light still was on in the basement, and they could hear the others talking. They were complaining about the people who had done such a shoddy job installing the cells. Not long after, the sounds of boots on the stairs reached them and then the light went out.
Glen reached for the key, but Sally put a hand out to restrain him. “The light switch is at the bottom of the stairs,” she said. “Give them a minute to clear the area.”
They stood, Glen counting to a hundred in his mind before producing the key and opening the lock. It turned without a sound, which Glen found interesting. Someone had wanted to be sure the door could be unlocked without attracting attention. He pulled up the door and peered down into the dark hole. Sally knelt and produced a flashlight from the floor, then shined it downward. There was a ladder attached to the concrete wall that lined the bulkhead.
“You’ll have to stay here,” Glen said. “Try to stay out of sight.”
She nodded and handed him the flashlight. He handed it back.
“Shine it into the hole for me, will you? I need my hands to navigate the ladder. And then if anyone approaches, you shine it in their eyes and run.” He waited for her to nod again before letting himself down the ladder.
She kept the light low and pointed into the basement so he could see the glint of light on the bars down into the basement. It took him only minutes to release Christian and Mia, relock the cells, and usher them up the bulkhead ladder. At the top, he re-locked the door and hid the key under the protruding metal edge. Not one of them had said a word.
They ran around the house and out onto the street, turning north toward the closest gate. But before they’d even passed the library, a group of people rounded the corner, coming toward them. Terror was leading them, his hand holding a blood-soaked rag against the wound in his belly.
Glen tried to stop their forward momentum, to get his group out of sight, but it was too late, and the daylight was becoming too bright. If he could see the rag in Terror’s hand, then the four of them must be visible as well. The two groups approached each other, stopping a good fifteen feet apart.
Terror walked into the space between the groups and Glen followed suit. They met, three feet apart, and glowered at each other as the sky lightened in the east. Glen could see now that Terror’s face was white with pain, and there was a crazy restlessness in his eyes. He would have to stay alert if he was going to stay alive.
“You should not have come back,” Terror said. “I will kill all four of you now.”
“Why kill us, Tyrell? Uh, Terror?” Glen quickly corrected his mistake. He didn’t want to antagonize this man. “We are no threat to you. I just want to take my friends somewhere safe. Somewhere away from here. We’ll never come to this town again.”
“You’re right. You won’t. Dead people don’t get to return.” Terror laughed, and there were a few faint-hearted twitters behind them.
It wouldn’t be long before more of Terror’s men would arrive, Glen thought. He might be able to get them past this group of tired and bleeding townspeople, but when Terror’s henchmen came, it would be a lot more difficult. They probably wouldn’t escape without injury.
Angelica pushed through from the back of the crowd and joined Terror, facing Glen. She stood close to his side and spoke quietly into his ear. Glen couldn’t hear what she had to say, but he doubted it was in their favor. Likely it was something to do with her getting to kill him because he’d come back to the town. Terror grinned and licked his lips.
“How about hand-to-hand combat with my general here?” he asked, licking his lips in anticipation.
“That would be very satisfying, don’t you think? If you win, the four of you go free. If not…” he shrugged.
“You’ll already be dead, so it won’t matter to you what happens to them.” He nodded his head in the direction of Mia, Sally, and Christian. “But I’m sure we’ll get some kind of enjoyment out of them.”
“I’d rather fight you,” Glen said with a sneer. “Not some mewling little girl. Where is the joy in that? Where is the triumph?” He tossed his head in the direction of his group. “Sally could fight Angelica. That might be a fair match.”
Angelica laughed. “I could destroy that child before she even realized it had happened. And the
n I would kill you. I would slice you into little pieces until there was nothing left. Would you like to die like that? Piece by piece?” She fingered the knife in her belt.
Glen noticed two things that surprised him. While Terror and Angelica were threatening to kill them, the group behind them had started backing away. These were not the fierce warriors pledged to support Terror, but frightened townspeople who wanted nothing more than to go back into their homes and tend to their wounds.
The other thing he noticed was the girl he had tried to help, the one he suspected Terror had beaten and raped, had joined the group supporting him. Only, while the others backed slowly away, fading into the dawn, she was moving steadily forward.
“Christian!” Glen called. “Come here, quickly.”
“Calling for backup?” Angelica mocked.
Christian approached warily, not understanding why Glen needed him.
“See that woman?” Glen said quietly, so Terror wouldn’t hear and look to see her approach. “Stop her from joining us. I don’t want her to get hurt.” Well, not anymore hurt than she already was, but Christian didn’t know about that.
“I’ll try,” Christian said and faded off to the side, relieved to be away from Terror again.
Glen hoped Christian could reach the woman before Terror noticed her, but Glen would have to keep their attention on himself. He didn’t have a firearm anymore. He’d given the one Eric had lent him to Jonno, so he took the knife from his belt and tossed it on the ground.
“Which of you would like to go first?” Glen said, watching Christian approach the woman from the corner of his eye. “Terror? Are you up for a little Mano e Mano? Wear me down so your little girl can finish me?”
Angelica hissed, and Terror dropped his gun belt.
“With pleasure,” Terror said. He threw a punch with a quickness that startled Glen, but he was able to dodge it just the same. The next one landed square on the side of Glen’s head, but Glen was able to retaliate with a blow to Terror’s injured gut. Glen realized it was the injury Eric had given him and became distracted, wondering what had happened to Eric.
“Let me help you,” Angelica pleaded.
“No,” Terror said. “I will take care of this. You can have the others after he is dead.”
Terror landed two quick jabs to Glen’s gut while he was trying to see where Christian and the woman were. The air whooshed out of him, and Glen decided he’d better pay attention to what Terror was doing. He noticed the wound in Terror’s gut was leaking blood again and he aimed another punch at the spot. Terror quickly turned away, but Glen still heard his grunt of pain as the jab grazed him.
Terror lunged forward and grabbed Glen around the neck, squeezing. His eyes bulging with rage. Angelica laughed and moved toward Mia and Sally. Glen tried calling out to them, warning them to run, but his airway was collapsing under the pressure of Terror’s grip. He tried punching and kneeing Terror, but their bodies were too close together, so his blows were ineffectual. The world was beginning to black around the edges.
Run! He tried to telegraph his words to the girls. He couldn’t see them, he couldn’t yell to them. Run, run, run! His body was desperate for air, and he was losing consciousness when Terror’s grip abruptly went slack. Glen fell to the ground, gasping for air. He thought Terror must be playing with him, giving him a minute before he finished him off.
But then Terror landed on the road next to Glen, his eyes no more than a foot away. What Glen saw there was surprise and shock, and then the life went out of them.
Glen looked up to see the woman, God he wished he could remember her name, who was holding a long thin stiletto knife, and it was covered in blood. She had taken her revenge on Terror. Glen rolled onto his back, panting and looking at the morning sky. Oh, how fitting it was that Terror had met his end at the hands of one of his victims. There really was poetic justice in the world.
A scream came from his left and, remembering the girls, he got up, frantically looking for what had become of them. But it wasn’t Sally or Mia who were making the noise, it was Angelica. The girls had taken her down. Mia was sitting on her back with Christian helping her cuff Angelica with the new plastic handcuffs Angelica had kept in her belt. Meanwhile, Sally sat on her legs. They all were sweaty and dirty, but their faces showed nothing but elation.
It was then Mia looked over at him and burst into tears.
“What?” he asked. “What is it? We’re all okay. We won.”
“They told us you were dead,” she sobbed. “They showed us your bloody shirt, and it had a hole in it, and it was soaked in blood.”
“I’m still wearing my shirt,” he said quietly, getting up to join her on Angelica’s back. They sat side by side, and he put an arm around her shoulders. “They were winding you up, Mia. Really, look at me, I’m not nearly as dead as they claimed.”
She laughed but then nodded toward the woman standing over Terror’s body. “What about her? Is she going to be okay?”
“I hope so,” Glen said. “I’ll see if she’ll talk to me before we leave. And if there is a therapist in this town, I’ll hook them up. But I think she may just have exorcised some demons. At least I hope so.”
Not long afterward, Eric showed up and had Jonno and Anthony haul Angelica away. Eric joined Glen, Christian and the girls on the curb. Christian pried Mia from Glen, and they were whispering together and holding hands. Sally was talking to Jack, who had crawled through the drainage pipe. They were laughing together, and Glen had the impression the boy was telling Sally the story of his part in the battle.
Daniel, the man Glen had spent the evening with in the cottage in the woods, came up and held out a hand for Glen to shake.
“I guess neither of us will be taking on the responsibility of the other’s family,” Glen said. “For which I am grateful.”
“Me as well,” Daniel said. “I’m surprised and delighted. Will you come on occasion and share a meal with us? It would be our pleasure if you would.”
“Of course.” Glen smiled. “But I’ll probably have to bring my motley crew with me.”
“I insist they come,” Daniel replied, grinning. “Wouldn’t want such fine young people to go hungry.”
“Why don’t you stay with us in the town?” Eric interrupted. “We could use a good doctor.”
“I’ll stay until we get everyone treated,” Glen said. “And I’ll supervise your drunk doctor while I’m here – make sure he’s up to snuff and off the stuff.”
Eric laughed. “Yeah, he needs a little intervention. But, you know, he may be better now that Terror is gone. That man was enough to drive anyone to drink.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Glen said,
Eric hoped it was true.
“But after that, we are going back to my cabin. I’m not saying you can’t call on my services if they are needed, but it’s been a long time since I’ve lived near people, and these three,” he nodded to his new family, “are going to be hard enough to get used to. But we’ll come when you need us. I understand you all know where to find me?” He raised his eyebrows at Eric.
Eric grinned. “Yes, we have been spying on you. It’s true. But only in a good way.” He nodded over Glen’s shoulder. “I think that Sally might be glad to stay on a little longer.”
Glen looked over to see Sally talking with Anthony. He grinned to himself. He had a feeling they’d be getting regular visitors from the town.
Find out what happens in part three! Coming soon!
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