The smell of oil on the grill in the back, right then, reminded me of the last time I’d had breakfast with my old man. I’d headed back to the country the year after Janine and I were married. He was sick but wouldn’t let it stop him from going out for a big breakfast at the diner, just like always. When I tried to tell him we could just stay in, have some oatmeal or something, my mother just shook her head at me, and I knew what it meant. He wasn’t going to live for long. It was prostate cancer, and it hit fast; faster than we could have imagined. I knew he wasn’t well, but my mother, most likely trying to protect me, had kept the severity of it from me for too long.
My little sister had called me, frantic, but she had always been an overreactor. Thinking of her then, I decided to text her as soon as I’d used the washroom. I had a longing for the one family member I had left, even though she resented me for not following her and Mom to California after my dad died. It’d been hard to explain to a heartbroken fifteen-year-old that I couldn’t uproot my life.
When we stepped into their house, the sights and smells of being a happy kid filled all my senses, and then I saw my father. He was sitting in his plaid chair, looking like a skeleton with skin. His sunken eyes creased as he smiled at us, and it had taken all my strength to not fall to my knees in tears.
Janine had held my hand firmly, and I knew she was feeling a portion of what I was. It was so strange, because as soon as I saw him, I felt an overwhelming layer of sadness, mixed with a heavy sense of missing him, even though he was right in front of me. I really just missed the fact that things were never going to be the same, and I could see in his eyes he felt that way too.
“Can I help you with anything?” the lady asked, as I stood there staring at the empty room like a crazy man.
“Sorry, just tired is all. Thanks for the coffee. I needed it.” I smiled and went to the bathrooms, checking the message once I was inside the small room. Think about it and all will be clear. Not wanting to get into a message war with someone I didn’t know, I put the phone away. A minute later, I was heading out the front doors, and back to the Jeep.
The message could mean anyone: Dalhousie, Leslie, Mae… though I didn’t want to go there, it could even mean Mary. There was no sense in speculating. We had to get back on the road.
“You good to keep driving, or do you want to switch off?” Mary asked as I was about to get into the driver’s side door.
“I’m as good as I’ll ever be,” I said, giving her a smile. I popped the top of the coffee, took a sip, and off we went, heading for Nashville.
_____________
The sun was rising as we approached the city limits, farmland and small town being replaced with suburbs and chain stores. I’d never been there before and was glad I had someone navigating my way.
“They came this way and seem to veer off toward this industrial area. Looks like nothing but warehouses for a few miles,” Mary said, pointing to the exit east.
Morning light blasted me, and I flipped the visor as we made our way down the secondary freeway. We were catching up and still didn’t know what we were going to do if we caught the killers.
“They’re stopping!” she called with a little more excitement than I was used to from her normally calm voice.
I slowed and exited off the freeway, now driving the large Jeep wheels over potholed, worn asphalt. It was Sunday, so traffic was light so early in the morning, and there wasn’t a car in sight in the many parking lots we were passing by. Soon we were nearing an old building, an auto repair shop by the look of it.
Mary gestured to our left, and my heart raced when we spotted the bare white truck: the missing one from the camp in Long Island. Pulling behind a large cube van, I kept my distance and turned the engine off. There was no one in the truck, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have eyes on the street. For all we knew, they saw us driving up.
The sun was still low on the horizon, and here it was blocked by large buildings between us and the rays. I hoped being in the shadows would help us.
“We don’t know what we’re up against here. They could just be hiding out, or they could be meeting more of their brainwashed humans. We have to be careful.” Mary looked at me and held my gaze for a moment longer than she normally would, emphasizing the word careful.
“I’ll go,” Mae said. “Recon, right? And if I get caught, I’ll claim I broke out too, and tracked them. I know for a fact that the one right across the hall looks just like us, and my hair is pretty much the same length.” She pulled her hair into a ponytail, and she was taking off her shirt. I averted my eyes, noticing how much she looked like my wife. I’d spent so much time with Mae that I rarely thought of her and Janine on the same wavelength any longer, but seeing her pulling her shirt over her head reminded me so much of Janny. “I borrowed some items from Donna that Leslie would recognize. I also have some of Leslie’s stuff. You know, just in case.”
I almost laughed at the ingenious planning. Don’t trust her. The words echoed in my mind and I shook them out, knowing it couldn’t be either of these women. They were as trustworthy to me as Magnus and Nat.
“Great thinking, Mae,” Mary said, smiling through an otherwise worried face.
“Just be careful, okay? Take a quick look around and come back. Take the walkie and let us know if you need us. Just hit the talk button twice, and don’t say anything if you aren’t able to speak,” I told her. Just like that, she was out the door, quietly stalking across the road, out of view of the warehouse’s windows or the truck. She hugged the neighboring building’s wall, and before we knew it, she was out of our sight.
“Mary, I got a text a couple hours ago. It just said to not trust her.”
“Trust who?” she asked.
“I don’t know. The number was blocked, and they weren’t very open about it.” I handed the cell over for her to look for herself.
“You don’t think they mean…” She left Mae’s name unsaid.
“I’m not sure. I imagine that’s who they mean, whoever they are. I don’t believe it for a second, though. It could just as easily mean Dalhousie.” I held the radio in my hand, anxious to hear from Mae. I hoped she was just going to find them sleeping in the empty warehouse, and we could go in together silently, taking them quietly and safely.
The walkie-talkie alert sounded, then another one in quick succession. Mae needed help.
We were out the door, running with our guns in hand, and I was thankful for the daily runs Mary had forced me to do over the last year. It helped me breathe and focused my nervous energy out of my body.
We’d seen Mae go to the left side of the warehouse, and scanned for her, seeing nothing but some stacked pipes and an old forklift.
“Open window over there,” Mary whispered.
Backs to the wall, we listened and could hear voices. They were getting closer, and I could make out the words after a few seconds.
“They followed you?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Yeah, I think they were right behind. I don’t know how they knew where I was going.” It was Mae’s voice, and I cringed that she had to attempt this ruse.
“And just how did you find us?” a male voice asked with an edge to it: Terrance.
“Like I said, I stole a truck right after you guys. I knew what you guys were up to, so I was watching you. I thought I could catch up, but the damned truck wouldn’t go over sixty-five,” Mae said as Donna.
“We had a guy kill the GPS,” Leslie said.
“Must be a separate circuit within the trucks to each other. I wondered how they didn’t find us. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting sirens.” Mae was pulling off the role well.
“I’m going to check this out. Where’s the truck?” Terrance asked.
“Just out the main doors, across the street.”
“Why didn’t you just pull up beside us?” he asked.
“Because it’s Sunday, and I didn’t want to draw any attention to a closed warehouse,” Mae said with ease. I
was very impressed with her quick repartee, and her ability to slide into someone else’s skin. Her cadence was even different.
“Fine. But if there’s anything at all fishy about it, it’s over,” Terrance said, and we could hear his heavy boot steps crossing the hard concrete floor of the warehouse. He was heading for the door near us. Inside, Mae spoke to Leslie in hushed tones, and I could tell she was leading her further into the warehouse. I looked at Mary, and she nodded, holding her gun firmly against her chest, ready to piston her legs up at the sight of Terrance. I mimicked her, and when the door flung open, she went high and right, and I stayed low and left.
He didn’t have time to draw his own gun, as Mary pointed hers at him and smiled. She motioned for him to set it on the ground and kick it over, which he did. His face didn’t betray his emotions for a second, and I knew I didn’t want to play poker against the guy.
In a matter of seconds, Mae was leading out a pissed-off version of herself.
“You have no idea what you’re doing, Donna. You’re really helping these humans, the same two that stopped us from doing what we were born to do? You’re as bad as her.” Leslie didn’t have to say Mae for us to all know who she meant. The look on Mae’s face must have given something away. “Wait a minute. You’re not Donna, are you? You’re that traitor!” Leslie lunged at Mae, almost connecting a shove, when Mary shot the ground behind Leslie’s feet.
“Get back!” Mary yelled. “And never call her that again. You don’t have any power anymore.”
Leslie’s resolve slipped and her shoulders slumped. Terrance’s firmly gripped fists loosened, and I hoped we were done with any altercations. Grabbing the zip ties from Mary’s pack, I went behind Terrance first and tied his hands behind his back, followed by Leslie’s. Guns were aimed at them the whole time.
“Let’s get them in the back of the truck and get on the road. We’ll call in and let them know we’ve acquired the targets,” Mae said without emotion. I figured she felt like a part of her was betraying her kind again, but I also knew she wholeheartedly disagreed with what they were doing.
“I’ll take the Jeep, if you guys don’t mind,” Mae said as we slid the back shut on the truck and padlocked it. There had been nothing back there, and we checked thoroughly for any hidden compartments where a weapon might have been stashed.
“Everything okay?” I asked her softly.
She just nodded glumly and touched my hand for a second, before heading across the street with the Jeep keys jingling along the way.
Soon we were heading back to the main highway, en route to New Mexico where, we’d been told, a location would be sent when we were within a hundred miles of the secret base. It was all a little too covert for me, but alien security was probably a good idea given the Event, and the stuff the hybrids just tried to pull off. We didn’t really know exactly what it was they were going to pull off, but we had to hope it could be stopped if the wheels were already in motion. I was happy to bring them to Dalhousie and General Heart, and let them deal with that part. I just wanted some sleep.
“Dean, let me know if you need to rest for a bit. I don’t mind driving,” Mary said from the passenger seat. It was stuffy in there, and I rolled the window down, letting in the warm morning air.
“Sounds good. Maybe in an hour or so. I’m too wound up to rest anyway.” It was the truth.
“I love you,” she said as she closed her eyes and turned from me.
“I love you too,” I replied. The words from the text message hung in the front of my mind.
NINE
It was a long drive to the border of New Mexico, and we had to fill up a few times. The truck’s mileage was terrible, and each time we stopped at a near-empty, out-of-the-way gas station in hopes that no one would hear the two prisoners in the back if they decided to shout or cause a scene. Lucky for us, they didn’t make a peep, and when we opened the door on the side of the road halfway through our journey, they were both cross-legged, leaning against the far corners, staring at us. They seemed surprised that we would offer them water and a bathroom break, but they took both with caution. I figured maybe compassion would soften them up, even though I knew they didn’t deserve anything but the worst treatment for what they’d done. My mother’s words rang in my mind as I tipped the water bottle slowly: “You catch more flies with honey.” I’d never understood that as a kid but did now.
Mae seemed more like her old self; the time alone must have helped. We passed the border into New Mexico well past sunset, and because of the stops and the governor on the truck, it was around eight at night when the text came in from General Heart’s people. Mary had a location sent to her tablet, and before we knew it, we were heading off the main highway, and onto a back road in the rocky, hilly landscape.
The dusk sky turned to darkness, and with no lights on the roadsides, I struggled to make sure we stayed on the road.
“How far now?” I asked for the fifth time in the last half-hour.
“Looks like we should be up on it soon. I have no idea how they’ve kept a whole facility hidden out here. There aren’t a lot of homes or anything, but those vessels aren’t small. Testing the ships must get seen by the people in the area,” Mary said.
“Yeah, we saw a town, what, ten miles back?” I asked, not expecting an answer.
The road we were on ended, with a large cement barricade preceded by some reflective construction signs saying “Road Ends.”
“What do we do now?” Mary asked, zooming in on her tablet.
“Pass that over, please,” I said, reaching for it. “Looks like there’s a dirt track here, and if we follow that, we should be there in a couple of minutes. I know it’s dark, but I don’t see a damn thing out there.” It was pitch black out here by then, but the sky was full of stars out in the middle of nowhere, and the moon hung low in the sky, half-moon but full of reflective light.
“Just be careful,” Mary said, reaching for the radio. “Mae, we have to go left here onto the dirt road, and I use the term ‘road’ loosely. Do you mind going ahead of us in the Jeep so we don’t go bouncing into a big rock and end up stranded with Bonnie and Clyde in the back?”
“You got it. Just let me sneak around you. Where do you think it is? Shouldn’t we see it by now? Guards? Lights? A fence?” Mae asked over the walkie.
“That’s what we thought, but the map says we’re almost there. All I see are rocks, dirt, and stars.” Mary set the walkie down, and Mae pulled ahead of us, driving slowly over the bumpy terrain.
We bounced along behind her, the truck’s old suspension not made for this kind of travel. Five minutes of that, and we were coming to another barricade. Mae slowed before us. It was the strangest thing. Our lights blasted the back of Mae’s Jeep, and I turned them down. For a moment, I thought Mae had turned her lights off, but then saw they hit the construction signs but didn’t travel beyond them, like some sick science experiment my brain couldn’t comprehend.
“What is this?” I asked, getting out of the truck, almost stumbling as I looked forward. Mary was right behind me, and we walked over to Mae, who was also looking ahead, jaw dropped down in wonder.
Twenty feet in front of us, the air shimmered, and the light from the Jeep dissipated into nothing, like it was sucked into a black hole. I could see rocks and dirt beyond it, but it didn’t look right, like we were being tricked with an optical illusion. Looking up, we could see the stars in the distance.
“Look,” Mary said, pointing upward. I didn’t know what she meant, but then I saw it. A blurry line straight across the sky, like something bent at that point.
Before we could try to figure out what it was we were seeing, a noise like a garage door squeaking open hit us, and forty yards to the right, a door was opening; a door out of thin air. Three people came out of the doorway, which was large enough for vehicles to pass through. I saw Mae bring her hand to her gun, which was tucked into the back of her pants. I wondered if I should do the same but recognized the man at the
forefront of the three. The other two were holding assault rifles, and stood half a foot taller than Trent Breton, one of the engineers from our meeting with the president in Washington.
“Glad you could make it,” Trent said, smiling wide. “Do you have the package?”
Mary nodded and pointed to the truck.
“Slate, do you mind pulling the truck to the compound? Henrik, take the Jeep, please.” Trent was still smiling as he motioned for us to follow him. “Don’t worry, your belongings will be brought to your rooms in a few minutes. Patrice asked me to meet you out here and show you the wall.” He led us to the slightly shimmering façade and ran his hand along it, where I noticed a small, almost indiscernible ripple, like a crease in a bedsheet. “Pretty cool, wouldn’t you say? We found some truly remarkable technology lodged in the ships’ computers. Things we could never have imagined working so easily. Being an engineer, I always dreamed of inventing or working on something like this, a cloaking device of sorts.”
I was finally picking up what he was saying. “Are you telling us there’s a whole facility hidden behind this wall that looks just like the distant desert?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it involves refraction, thousands of reflective cameras imaging other points, and a net of sorts. We actually have a solid wall with the device draped over it.”
Mary lifted an eyebrow. “How do you keep people from seeing inside from above? Planes? Drones?”
“It covers the base in a dome. Think of a football stadium with a retractable ceiling,” Trent said, seemingly very pleased with himself. I didn’t blame him, because I was thoroughly impressed with it.
“And just how big is this dome of yours?” Mary asked.
The Survivors: Books 1-6 Page 29