Sully swiveled on the picnic bench to face Barry.
“Ezra never could explain how he found his sister in such a place. Only that a miracle was delivered onto him and his family. You see, when Evangeline returned to Auraria something amazing happened, the Rhodes family stopped dying. Before she arrived, most of their kin died early and often, afflicted by a disease that took ‘em at a young age. Afterwards, the family no longer feared disease or death itself. They soon rose to prominence in Auraria and eventually owned the town and everybody in it.”
Barry looked at blue veins on the back of his hands and then shifted away from Sully’s intense stare.
“Sorry. I think I need to lie down for a little while. The last few days is catching up with me. Doc, maybe I can get a rain check on that examination?” Barry said, getting up from the table.
“Sure, Barry. We can do it later,” Doc answered.
When Barry walked out of the tent, Sully slid closer to Doc.
“Poor fella,” Doc said. “I wonder who got him out of here when he was a boy.”
“How did he get out?” Sully asked. “That’s the question.”
Doc nodded in agreement then pushed his cup of cold coffee away.
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - F O U R
Barry left the tent and walked out into bright sunlight, where the high walls of the quarry cast shadows on the ground. He guessed it was nearing noon, based on the angle of the sun.
“Barry?” Jen called out.
She and Jackson sat with the children. Katy ran and giggled completely ignorant of her surroundings. Daniel and Tonya appeared relaxed, allowed to be kids again.
“Hey, bro. How’d it go with Doc?” she asked.
“Good.”
“That’s it...good?”
“He plans to look into my condition to see if he can find a way to control it,” Barry lied. He didn’t want to worry her over something that couldn’t be helped.
“Well, it’s a start, right?” she asked.
“Yes. Yes it is.”
“Look what we found,” Tonya said, hand outstretched. A gold nugget rested in the palm of her hand. “There’s gold here, lots of it.”
The quarry was rich with gold, but the camp had little use for the metal. Conditions didn’t warrant the use of currency as only the bounty from the land, like corn and wheat, had any real value. Above them on the rim of the quarry, a man walked a horse and plow in an empty field getting the soil prepared for planting.
On the way back to his tent, Barry walked by Jimmy who was cleaning a rifle on a wooden table. A fire burned next to him in a steel drum.
“Know how to handle one of these?” Jimmy pulled a Colt revolver from under the table and handed it to him.
Barry took the gun and examined the long barrel.
“I’ve shot before,” he answered.
“Good. Maybe you can work the watch with me tonight?” Jimmy asked. “The Edward brothers were supposed to have it tonight, but they went hunting and haven’t turned up yet.”
“Should we go look for them?” Barry asked.
“Nah, they’ve pulled this routine before. Last time they ended up drunk in some cabin up in the mountains. Besides, if those boys don’t want to be found, there’s no use in trying.”
“Well, I’d be happy to fill in,” Barry said, aiming the gun in front of him.
“Okay, then meet me at the elevator just before sundown and dress warm, it can get cold up on top.”
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - F I V E
When Barry arrived at the elevator, Jimmy was already there with his back against the wall of the quarry. Seeing Barry arrive, he turned and spoke into a voice tube.
“Pull her up in one minute.”
“Got it, Jimmy,” a voice answered back.
The elevator cage made from welded pieces of pipe dangled two feet from the quarry floor. Barry followed Jimmy onto the lift, then gripped the sides and prepared for the ascent to the surface.
“Going up,” Jimmy said.
Jimmy had worked the watch hundreds of times before, but always felt anxious before his shift. The ride up made him think about the danger outside the walls of the compound. Barry fidgeted with the pistol stuffed into the pocket of his borrowed overcoat. When the lift reached ground level, it stopped with a jerk. Jimmy and Barry stepped out and held the gate open for two men waiting for a ride down. Once the men were loaded in, Jimmy pulled the lever and they descended to safety.
He knew when the men reached the bottom they would chain the lift to an iron ring mounted to the floor of the quarry, disabling the elevator and preventing anyone or anything from raising it. When the device was first constructed, two men on watch were attacked. One was killed, but the other ran and escaped onto the elevator. One of the creatures jumped onto the cage and rode the lift to the floor of the quarry. Gun shots woke the sleeping camp and they were ready when the elevator touched bottom. They opened fire on the creature, killing it, but the man in the cage was also hit and died a few hours later. From that time on, defensive measures like the iron ring were put into place to protect the camp and its inhabitants.
“First rule is we stay together,” Jimmy said. “It’s dark as pitch up here and we could end up shooting each other if we’re not careful.”
Barry nodded in agreement and then followed Jimmy up the ladder to the vault.
“Second rule is you don’t close the vault unless you are inside it. The combination’s been lost to time and the safe is no good if we’re locked outside of it.”
“Got it,” Barry said.
“The third and last rule is the easiest. Sit, wait and hope like hell that nothing tries to get in,” Jimmy said, half smiling.
Barry laughed uneasily.
“I mean...gets in. They always try,” Jimmy added.
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - S I X
Barry sat on an upright wooden chair, which according to Jimmy, was designed to make sleep impossible. They were halfway through a quiet shift and hadn’t seen or heard anything. Suddenly, Jimmy leveled his rifle towards the dark road outside the gates.
“Looks like we got a customer,” he said. “Remember, don’t shoot unless they breach the gate. Bullets will take em down, but they’ll come back unless you torch them and scatter the ashes, and I sure as hell don’t want to go out there to collect any bodies tonight.”
In the distance, something limped towards the compound moving slowly with jerking movements. Jimmy trained the scope of his rifle on the target, ready to fire.
“Holy cow,” he said. “It’s Bobby Edwards.”
Bobby stumbled toward the gate, injured and dragging a leg as he walked. He was unarmed and his checkered shirt was stained with blood.
“We need to help him,” Barry exclaimed.
“No dice,” Jimmy said. “No one leaves the compound after dark, no exceptions.
A creature emerged from the shadows behind Bobby. He limped faster into the brush along the road, but the thing was nearly on him. Jimmy trained his scope and was ready to fire when the creature disappeared from view. Bobby had led it into one of the traps set up along the roadside. He placed most of them himself and knew all their locations. The creature thrashed on the ground with its leg nearly severed by the trap. Bobby limped back onto the road one hundred yards from the gates.
“Behind him!” Barry shouted.
Jimmy swept the scope from the woods line to the road where a pack advanced on Bobby. He fired the rifle, methodically shooting creatures until Bobby was ten yards from the gate.
“Quick, open them gates!” Jimmy shouted.
Barry removed a chain from one of the gates and then opened it wide enough for Bobby to stumble through. He slammed the gate closed and locked the chain. One of the creatures, a teenage girl in a shredded yellow dress, was a few feet outside when Jimmy downed her with a shot to the chest. Barry crawled forward and pulled Bobby behind a wall of sandbags.
“Let’s get him inside,” Jimmy said.
“Stay with him a minute,” Jimmy said.
“Sure,” Barry answered.
Jimmy unbolted the door, stepped outside and trained a pair of binoculars along the woods line. Seeing no one else, he walked back into the building and locked the door behind him.
“No sign of Ralph,” he said, then walked over to Bobby and grabbed his head in both hands. “Bobby? Where’s your brother?”
Bobby didn’t respond. His eyes were vacant and staring.
“Bobby, where’s Ralph?”
He finally focused his eyes on Jimmy.
“Good as dead,” he answered. “Them things took him and messed him up real bad. They’re fixin’ to take him to root.”
Jimmy stood and looked at Barry.
“There’s nothin’ we can do for him,” he said. “Those things have had their taste of him. They’ll feed off what they can, ears, fingers, and toes, but won’t eat enough to kill him. Then they’ll take what’s left of him to the cemetery and bury him alive.”
“Can’t we stop them? Barry asked.
“It’s no use. Some of the fellas dug one up a few years back. But the roots worked fast and the body was shriveled up like paper by the time they got to it.”
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - S E V E N
Doc walked into the dining tent and sat at one of the tables next to Jen with Jackson and Sully across from them.
“Cup of coffee?” he asked.
“No thanks,” Jen answered. “What’s this all about? You said you needed to speak with us.”
“Jen, your brother mentioned you came up this way looking for his birth parents,” Doc said.
“That’s right,” she answered.
“And you’re his stepsister?”
“Yes. Why all these questions about Barry?”
“Well, he claims to have done something quite amazing,” Doc said.
“Which is?” Jen asked.
“He left this place,” Doc answered. “Something no one’s done for decades.”
“Well then there must be a way out,” she said.
“Or, your story isn’t true,” Sully added.
“Hold on a second, Sully,” Doc said, raising his hand. “You can understand why we have questions.”
“No, I can’t,” she answered. “Why would we lie?”
“The Rhodes family was born of deceit,” Sully answered. “And your brother is a Rhodes.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My brother’s sick and he only came here to find a suitable transplant.”
“The Rhodes curse is what he’s got,” Sully said.
Jen still looked haggard with matted hair and dark circles under her eyes. Doc turned to face her.
“Open your mouth,” he said.
“Why,” she snapped.
“Jackson, would you mind opening your mouth?” Doc asked.
“Sure...I guess so.” Jackson opened his mouth while Doc leaned over the table and looked inside.
“Okay, thank you.” Doc sat back down and turned to Sully. “He’s good. Our friend Jackson here has a filling which means he’s from the outside.”
Sully nodded in agreement.
“I am guessing your brother has the same condition that afflicted the Rhodes clan,” Doc said. “There was a time when few of them made it to adulthood.”
“But old Ezra Rhodes fixed all that,” Sully added.
“Unfortunately, his cure turned out to be worse than the disease itself,” Doc said. “Most of those creatures out there are what’s left of your brother’s family.”
“We caught us one once,” Sully said. “One of them, a woman, tried to climb down the walls of the quarry but ended up falling. She was hurt real bad and could barely move when we found her. We made the mistake of tying her up and the next day she was gone. But she was still in the quarry; people reported hearing voices and seeing apparitions that day.”
Doc removed a fishing hat from his head and wiped his brow.
“She came back that night, good as new, and attacked a family sleeping in one of the tents. They were all killed. Some of the men managed to corner the creature and kill her. We burned the body and scattered the ashes past the fields up top.”
“Doc got to examine her,” Sully said.
“I did, that first day when we found her. Her heart rate was five times faster than normal and her pupils were pinpoints within black eyes. She had blackened gums with teeth reduced to sharp nubs.”
“Could she communicate?” Jen asked.
“Yes,” Doc answered sadly. “It was a person once, we know that for sure. She told me her name was Ellen Rhodes.”
“According to county records, she was born in 1916, which made her ninety five years old,” Sully added. “But other than those teeth and eyes, she didn’t look much older than twenty.”
“I spoke with one as well,” Jen said. “A young girl named Willow.”
“Where?” Doc asked.
“In the cellar of the old house where I was held. She visited me often and tried to help me. During the day she was amorphous, but at night she took a physical form like the woman you described. She helped me escape when one of those things attacked me.”
“Them things vaporize during the day and can’t be hurt,” Sully said. “As far as we figure, they can only be killed at night when they’re the most dangerous.”
“What’d this house look like?” Doc asked.
“It was a plantation of some kind,” she answered.
“Must be the Rhodes place,” Sully said. “Ezra Rhodes built that place after he returned from the war. His family owned everything, hotels, banks and mines, including the one we’re in. But as the years passed, people saw less and less of Ezra and the rest of his kin.”
“Children started disappearing and rumors about the family began to spread,” Doc added. “A group of men rode out to the plantation to confront Ezra and were nearly massacred. A few escaped and were able to warn the rest of the town. People tried to flee, but soon realized they were trapped here.”
“Trapped like prey.” Sully stood up and circled the table. He was becoming agitated reliving an old conversation had in the camp over the years.
“How’s this all possible?” Jackson asked.
“It’s possible because Ezra Rhodes made a deal with the devil himself,” Sully face was now the color of a newly ripened tomato.
“We don’t know that, Sully. There could be a pathological reason for these occurrences. Something we don’t understand,” Doc said.
“What disease could explain this?” Jackson asked.
“Acute physical reactions have been found in certain strains of the rabies virus,” Doc answered.
“This ain’t rabies, Doc.” Sully slapped a callused hand on the table. “And you know it.”
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - E I G H T
Barry and Jimmy rode the elevator to the floor of the quarry in silence. Bobby remained up top, determined to work the day watch, despite his grief and exhaustion from the night before. Jimmy didn’t argue because Bobby was stubborn as hell and there’d be no convincing him. He’d stay up top and deal with his grief by shooting at anything that moved. When the platform reached the bottom, Barry spotted Doc leaving the dining tent.
“Doc,” Barry sprinted off the platform after him.
“Hey there, how’d the watch go for you?”
“Not so good. Bobby came back, but we lost Ralph.”
“Dammit.” Doc removed his hat in disgust. “Those two have been reckless as hell since the day they got here. How’s Bobby?”
“Seems okay, but he wouldn’t let us tend to him,” Barry answered.
“Sounds like Bobby.”
Barry shielded his eyes from the bright morning sun. “You have a few minutes for that exam?”
“Sure. Let’s go over to my tent, I have my things there.”
Barry followed Doc to a canvas lean-to built against the wall of the quarry. Inside the tent was a cot, a desk and a wooden trunk. The bed was neatly made with a ragged quilt. Doc lit a lantern hung from a metal hook.
“Please have a seat. I have to warn you, my equipment is rudimentary. I found most of it around town.” He held up an ancient stethoscope and then hung it around his neck.
He slid a chair in front of Barry and then held the stethoscope to his chest. Barry’s heart pounded rapidly, two hundred beats per minute. Doc stood and opened the flaps of his tent.
“Turn towards me, Barry,” Doc said. He wore a tarnished head mirror that reflected the sunlight streaming into the tent.
“How’ve you been feeling?” He shined the mirror into Barry’s eyes then felt the glands on his neck.
“Better lately. I actually feel great.”
“I’m sorry I can only check your vitals right now. I need to get up top to have a look at Bobby. Maybe we can finish up later on.”
“Sure, Doc. Thanks.” Barry stood and left the tent.
The exam had confirmed Doc’s worst fears. A racing pulse wasn’t uncommon when examining a patient, but Barry’s pupils were reduced and his gums were darkened. He would soon become like the others in his family. Doc opened his desk drawer, retrieved his revolver and then set out to find Jimmy and Sully.
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - N I N E
Doc found Jimmy napping in his tent. He grabbed his shoulder and shook him awake. Sully was standing outside holding a shotgun.
“No shit?” Jimmy responded, after Doc told him about Barry. “What about the other two?”
“They’re fine.”
“So far,” Sully added from outside the tent.
“They’ll be fine as long as they don’t interfere with what we have to do.” Doc poked his head out of the tent and looked straight at Sully. “Is that clear, Sully?”
Beneath the Veil Page 7