by Alexie Aaron
~
The two security guards moved back and forth from the two open exits of the tunnel. They followed the previous team’s well-trod trail up and around the hilly scrubland. They were told to keep out of the tunnels themselves. If they suspected that the tunnels had been entered, they were to call the local sheriff’s department immediately. Their job was to dissuade the locals from acting upon the interest that had been drummed up by the rumors that bones were found in the tunnels. The law firm that hired them assured the guards that it was animal bones that were found, nothing more.
Daylight was quick to leave the hilly area. The cloudy skies did nothing to help in this, aside from a spectacular sunset that momentary blinded the men.
“I guess that’s that. Time for flashlights,” Stan, the elder of the two, recommended.
Lights on, the two continued their trek until they settled in at the entrance the original trespassers had used. The police tape was intact, and the ground around the shuttered opening was undisturbed.
The younger man, Dale, lifted the tape and dropped it, commenting, “All this trouble over a few animal bones.”
“I think they’re concerned the tunnels may collapse on any trespassers,” Stan told Dale.
“Bullshit, these tunnels have been open, and the owners were unconcerned, since I was a baby. My father took me through them once or twice. Just to show me that there wasn’t anything in them that I’d be interested in.”
“Did it work?”
“Pardon?”
“Did you stay out of the tunnels?”
“Hell no, best place to have a smoke during lunch break. The high school is just over the hill.”
“Do you still smoke?” Stan asked.
“Nah, too expensive, and my mother threatened to neuter me herself if she ever smelt tobacco on my breath.”
“Good thing,” he said lighting up. “Nasty habit, these.”
Dale shook his head.
Tu-whu tu-whu.
Stan turned his head, interested.
“Owl,” Dale identified.
“I thought hoo hoo was the standard.”
“Not around here. Sometimes the big ones go: terwit terwoo terwit terwoo.”
“Are you an expert?”
“Nah, just addicted to Animal Planet.”
Ack-ack-ack-ackawoooo-ack-ack-ack.
“I think there are foxes around here,” Dale drew out his flashlight and directed the beam into the scrub nearest to them.
“Careful, they could be rabid.”
Ack-ack-ack-ackawoooo-ack-ack-ack.
Dale crouched down, peering into the brush with the aid of his flashlight. He saw a set of red glowing eyes staring back. He reared back a bit too fast, putting too much of his weight on his heels. The momentum carried him to the ground. His backside hit hard on the frozen ground, but he kept his light trained on the eyes. He felt relieved when they didn’t move towards him. Another set of glowing eyes joined the first.
“Just as I thought, two foxes up to no good,” he reported.
Stan responded with a low gurgle followed by a scream.
Dale whipped around, sending the beam of light at Stan. The guard had backed himself into a small pine and was waving madly at something in front of him.
Dale got to his feet and ran over, “Stan, what’s wr… Oh shit!”
Before him, suspended in midair, was a B movie nightmare. Floating before Stan was a disembodied head with soupy eyes and an open sharp-toothed maw. An echoing groan combined with the gnashing of the specter’s teeth had Dale pissing himself. He had the forethought to grab for Stan who was choking.
He whirled around and slapped his partner hard. “Breathe, man, breathe!”
Stan collapsed into Dale’s arms. The kid pulled him upwards. “No, no, no you don’t. It ain’t real. It can’t hurt us,” he said, determined to get out of this situation in one piss-soaked piece.
Stan took a gulp of air and drew out his taser and shot at the thing. He missed, sending the prongs into the brush instead. The sparks quickly died out, although the odor of wet charred wood filled their nostrils.
The head had vanished. Dale retrieved the spent taser but did not return the weapon to Stan who was shaking as much as if he had been the recipient of the shock. Dale reached for his radio and found it gone. His cell too had disappeared out of his back pocket. Maybe he dropped it when he was looking at the foxes? He directed the beam of his flashlight back and forth over the ground, to no avail.
“Dale, we got to get out of here,” Stan pleaded, grabbing onto his arm. “Something’s not right. We need to call for help.”
“And tell them what? I pissed myself because you were screaming at… what? What the fuck was that? We’ll be laughing stocks. WE STAY HERE!”
CRACK! SWISH! CRACK!
The sounds preceded the emergence of a headless axe-swinging monster. He swung his axe in the guard’s direction. Blood pulsed out of the open neck of the creature.
“My god!” Stan said and pulled on Dale’s arm. “He’s looking for another head!”
SWISH! SWISH!
The axe came closer to the pair with every swing.
Dale turned around and started running up the hill, dragging an odorous, defecating Stan behind him.
Tonia and Lorna emerged from the brush. They walked over and carefully pulled the tape away from the shuttered door. Ed followed, opening the door. He looked at Freddy’s disembodied head and Murphy’s headless, axe-swinging body and actually chuckled. “Come on, lads, stop fooling around. We have work to do.”
Dale made the security car, jammed his hands into his pockets and came up empty. No keys. “Stan, do you have the keys?”
Stan sank to the ground and moaned. “I crapped myself.”
“No fucking kidding. We’ve got to report this. Come on. Maybe we can flag someone down on the main road.”
The tunnel was bitter cold. Even Ed, who had trained in the bitter November winds on the Lake Michigan isle, was uncomfortable.
“It’s almost like they’re waking up,” Tonia said, approaching the roped-off area slowly. “Murphy, stand by. We may need you,” she said before she flattened herself against the wall and inched her way towards the fall-in.
Lorna lit several light discs and set them around to bring daylight inside the dark hole. She set out several body bags and unrolled a stretcher before she joined Tonia beyond the rope.
Dale waved frantically at the approaching headlights. He could tell it was a truck before it stopped. The window rolled down and a young woman leaned out. “Is there a problem?”
“Can we use your phone?”
“I don’t know. What if you steal it?” the blonde asked.
“How about you call the police for us?”
“Sure. Let’s see 9 1 …”
“Wait!” Dale said, taking in his and his partner’s appearance. “Could you instead give us a ride into town?”
“I don’t know you,” the blonde protested.
“I’m Dale Wright. I live just off of Main.”
“You’re not Bobby Wright’s little brother are you?” she asked sweetly.
“Yes… Do I know you?”
“Mia, Mia Martin, oh, you’d know me as Mia Cooper.”
“Crazy Cooper!” Dale blurted out, regretting it the moment it passed his lips.
Mia’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Martin. I’ve just been through hell,” Dale explained. “My partner has the flu real bad.” Dale leaned in and whispered, “I think he crapped his pants.”
“I’ll take you to the hospital,” she offered.
“NO! I mean that’s not necessary. Just drop us off at my house. We’ll ride in the back so we don’t soil your interior.”
Mia nodded and waited until the two settled into the back of the truck before she let out a small whoop of victory. She tapped her earbud twice to let the others know that she had contained the guards.
Murphy put a restraining hand on Fr
eddy. “You don’t want to see this. It’s not good for your soul. Stay at the end of the tunnel, and warn us if anyone comes.”
Tonia handed the saber to Lorna who carefully passed it on to Ed who laid it reverently on top of one of the open body bags. He waited and received, bone by bone, the remains of Corporal Fredric Marsten. He closed up the bag and opened another to receive the excavated bones of several other soldiers.
“We don’t have time to get them all. Let’s hope this is enough to bring about a court order excavation. Anyway, we have Freddy almost intact, plus or minus a few finger bones,” Tonia reported.
“It’s enough,” Lorna agreed.
Ed waited for the two to return before he loaded up the stretcher. He would let the women carry it out while he handled the heavier equipment, the shuttering of the door and the replacement of the police tape.
Mia waited until the two men went into the house before she tapped her earbud three times.
“Welcome back, Crazy Cooper,” Ted said in her ear.
“Watch it, Martin,” she growled.
“A bit sensitive?”
Mia winced at the pun. “All I’m saying is, that comment went a long way to relieving me of any guilt for scaring the piss and shit out of those clowns.”
“Us too. Come home, Cid has made us all brownies and promises ice cream and hot fudge as a celebration.”
Mia laughed. “You sure know how to bait your hook.”
“Well, prior to marrying you, I was a master baiter.”
“I bet you were. Home in ten.”
~
Dale and Stan waited until an hour before the next shift would arrive to return to the tunnel site. Dale’s mother had dropped them off, giving her son her cell phone for emergencies.
As the sun rose over the eastern forest, it lit the trees with an eerie glow. The two guards worked their way back down to the shuttered tunnel. They looked around and found to their relief that all of their missing equipment was scattered around the area. The crime scene tape was intact, and the place, aside from the burnt wood of the encroaching berry vines, looked the same as when they started their shift.
They walked the path to the other entrance and found that it too was undisturbed. On the way back, Stan looked over and thought he spied some large footprints moving to and from the tunnels, but he declined to mention them to Dale. What he had seen last night didn’t make footprints.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Charles Cooper, with the aid of Amanda, set out Freddy’s bones. Several small bones were missing, but he was able to lay out the young man. Amanda described the procedure to Dave who was working alongside the senior Coopers. Mia moved restlessly from her perch on the landing of the stairs to Cid’s apartment.
Her father looked up and waved her over. “I think you can come over now. We’re all set.”
Mia walked down the steps, and Ted joined her, handing her the plastic-covered sword. He withdrew it from the clear scabbard and handed the hilt to Mia. She walked over and placed it next to the body with the grip residing in amongst the finger bones of the right hand. She took off her gloves and placed her hand on Freddy’s skull and let his memories take hold.
The ride had been a hard one. The trip back would be harder. Corporal Frederick Marsten rode his horse through the small town quietly. He didn’t want to call attention to their progress, nor did he want to appear furtive. To be caught spying behind enemy lines was punishable by death. Instead, he and his comrades wore the uniforms of their unit proudly. There was no guarantee that the promised goods would be ready or still available to their cause. The missive he had in his pocket entreated them to come as soon as possible to the factory. They were to meet the owner’s representative at the back entrance.
The group rounded the buildings, following a hard-packed path downward. Just out of sight of the buildings there was an entrance cut out of the hillside. Alongside were several wagons. There were also a few aging draft horses tied nearby.
Freddy hopped off his horse and banged on the shuttered door. It was opened by a cautious looking man dressed in a business suit. He took a look at Freddy’s uniform and motioned for him to come in.
“Bring the others, quickly,” he ordered.
Freddy motioned for the others to join them.
“Mia,” Ted called, breaking through the vision.
She looked over at him and reported, “They were invited in. Freddy had cause to be in this area. I think one of the Browns I saw in Audrey’s picture was involved.”
Burt adjusted the focus until he could see Mia’s eyes and how an odd light came into them when she resumed seeking out the truth.
Freddy followed his host through the tunnels where chests of armaments lined the walls. They went up a few dozen stairs to find themselves in a place where a few tables and food had been laid out.
“First, business. I have your order packed up and ready to go. All you have to do is pay me, and after a brief respite, you can leave here.”
Freddy nodded to his aide who, along with a private, carried the heavy box and laid it on the table in front of him. The businessman opened the casket and counted the gold coins contained within. He seemed satisfied and nodded to the rougher looking laborer. “Pack up the wagons.”
The food and wine tempted Freddy, but he declined. He was uneasy and wanted to leave the area before the sun rose. Sneaking in on horseback was one thing, traveling out with wagons full of muskets was another.
He and his men walked down the tunnels and out into the open. Two wagons had been loaded and a team of horses were being backed into place.
A gunshot rang out, followed by a swarm of blue-coated soldiers moving down out of the hillside. Freddy motioned for his team to get back in the tunnels to seek another way out. He waited until his last man made it inside before turning to follow. A thunderous blast of gunpowder exploded behind him. He looked as the cannonball shattered the door before him. It wasn’t until he felt the pain, did he realize the ball had gone through him first.
Mia straightened up, taking in a deep breath of air. She lifted her hand from the sword and pulled on her glove.
“I’m not sure, but I think they were ambushed. Maybe followed. Yes, I don’t think their host knew of the soldiers hiding in the hillside. Freddy died at the entrance while his men were seeking the safety of the tunnels. He was covering for them. He was the last to leave, the first to die. I can’t tell you any more from Freddy’s bones.”
Ted put an arm around her. “You did well, Minnie Mouse. You can talk to Freddy once you’ve rested.”
Mia nodded and let Ted lead her away towards the office.
“It takes a lot out of her,” Amanda noticed. “I don’t know why she does it? It’s not that we can’t put the pieces together and interpret how this lad died. He has a hole where his chest used to be.”
Burt lowered the camera and walked over and explained, “Mia can bring the truth to the fallen. Until now, I thought they were part of a raiding party. Instead, it appears the Browns or someone in their employ struck a lucrative deal with the Confederate Army.”
Amanda nodded and started working on laying out the other bones.
Charles watched his wife. She was unaware of his eyes upon her, and that as she lifted the skull out of the body bag, a mist moved outward. “Gentlemen, I believe we have another spirit.”
Dave whirled around to see a large gruff man bearing down on him. The ghost held a long knife, and it was headed for his neck.
Dave heard a clang of steel upon steel as he fell to the ground. Over him, Freddy’s sword caught the knife before it could do any damage.
Mia heard the spectral noise. She broke away from Ted and ran over to pull Dave away from the scuffle. The lights flickered overhead as the new spirit gained power. Freddy was momentarily confused by his body lying on the table. To the living it was just bones, but to him, it was himself just after the canon ball took his life.
Dave’s assailant moved around Freddy an
d headed for Mia and Dave. She put her body between the spirit and Dave. The angry spirit pulled her off of Dave, tossing her as easily as if she was paper, and like paper, she crumpled when she connected with the barn wall. Ted ran towards his wife after tossing an activated energon cube to Freddy.
Freddy slid his sword along the top of the mega battery. He not only gained strength, but he filled out. “Stop where you are, muggins! I, Frederic Marsten the third, call you out!”
The angry spirit pulled back from his prey. He drew more energy until the lights blew out. The fuse box popped and sputtered. Cid ran over with the shop fire extinguisher and drenched the smoking fuses with chemicals.
Murphy positioned himself in front of Ted who was trying to wake Mia up.
“Come on, Mia, come to Teddy Bear,” he pleaded.
The emergency battery slowly brought the still-working overhead lights on. It wasn’t daylight bright, but they now could see around them.
“That isn’t possible,” Amanda said as she looked over and saw the two combatants squaring off.
The angry spirit was dressed in wool trousers and had his sleeves held up with garters. His shoes were expensive. His face turned away from the Coopers as he sought out Dave. Locating him, he returned his focus on Freddy. “I do not wish to fight you,” the spirit claimed.
“You cannot attack the living.”
“I just did. It seems I can do a lot of things. Go away, you and I are square.”
Freddy asked. “What happened to my men? The blue coats were waiting for us. They had a cannon all primed. Did you ambushed us?”
“No, it wasn’t I. We were ratted out by him!” The spirit pointed at Dave.
“No, sir, that is impossible. That boy did not exist then. You are confused.”
“He’s my brother’s boy. Can’t you see he has the Brown look about him? He and that Major my brother drank with blocked off the exit. He accused me of being a traitor. I told him, it was just business. The Confederates paid more for supplies. Your brethren fought hard, but we were outnumbered. A few died in battle, and the others were given a musket-ball headache, myself included.”