Beneath the Veil (8 page)

“Any volunteers? She can handle four at a time safely.”

Jackson stepped out on to the wooden floor of the makeshift elevator and grabbed the bars of the cage as it swayed side to side.

“Haven’t lost anybody yet,” Doc said smiling. “Had a few get stuck one time, but that was a long while ago.”

Barry joined Jackson on the platform and motioned for Tonya to join them. She stepped in slowly, and Doc closed the gate behind her.

“Enjoy the ride, its one hundred and sixty seven feet to the bottom.”

He pulled on a long metal lever and the platform began to move. Daniel stepped near the edge to watch them descend. A minute passed until the chain slackened. Doc pushed the lever up and walked over to the voice tube.

“How we looking?”

“All set Doc, pull her up,” a voice below answered.

He walked over to an orange generator mounted on a trailer with a black gas tank attached. He pushed a priming rod, pulled a rope and the machine roared to life. He checked the gauges and then tightened a pressure valve. The chain tightened with a jerk, and the spindle began to turn. The chain wrapped around the spindle as the platform climbed back towards ground level. When the top of the cage appeared over the edge of the quarry, Doc twisted the valve and the platform came to a stop. He opened the gate and motioned for them to enter. Jen followed Daniel, who carried his sleeping younger sister, onto the platform.

“I need to stay up top,” Doc said. “I have watch duty with Sully. We take turns every few nights. The folks below will see to you.”

He closed the gate and lowered the platform for the last time that day. The camp had rules and the most important one was that once darkness came, the elevator remained down until daybreak. The men left up top understood they were the last defense, unable to retreat to the safety of the quarry.

C H A P T E R  T H I R T Y - T W O

J
en sat in a makeshift tent used as a dining hall eating a second plate of food. She had never been so hungry in her life. Picnic tables lined the tent and tree timbers sunk into the ground provided support for its canvas roof. One of the camp residents, Elaine Forester, was busy getting them settled.

“You can all bunk in here tonight until we get you permanent places to stay,” she said.

“Don’t go to too much trouble. We won’t be here long,” Jen answered.

Elaine, a former school teacher, looked somewhat confused. “Okay. We will try to make you comfortable here, for however long you plan to stay with us.” Elaine put down a set of sheets she was folding and walked out of the tent.

“What’s that all about?” Jen asked.

Barry shot a glance at the children who were busy playing, then turned back to face her.

“These people claim that no one ever leaves this town. That we’re trapped here.”

Jackson nodded in agreement.

“What? There has to be a road out of here,” she insisted.

“Some of these people have been here for a long time,” Jackson added.

“Tomorrow, we need to pack up and get the hell out of here,” she responded. You don’t know what’s out there...I want to go home.”

Barry stood up without answering and walked out of the tent. A large pond glimmered under the light of the moon as cold mist descended into the quarry. The residents of the camp, many of which were families, hurried about their nightly rituals. They had managed to carve out an odd normalcy in this abnormal place. People cooperated to get things done without the modern conveniences they had once relied upon. He picked up a stone from the shore and skimmed it across the glassy water. Jimmy walked up carrying a lantern and a silver flask.

“Want a sip?” he asked, holding up the flask. “Homemade.”

“Thanks,” Barry said, accepting the flask.

“Go easy, now. It’s close to two hundred proof. The vehicles here run just fine on it.”

Barry took a sip and the liquid burned his throat as it went down.

“Good,” Barry said, in a hoarse voice.

Jimmy chuckled and sat on a stone wall built along the water’s edge. Barry joined him and handed the flask back.

“So, what brought you folks up this way?” Jimmy took another sip.

Barry watched the water as a fish jumped at the moonlight. “There’s fish in there?” Barry asked, surprised.

“Sure, plenty of them. They’ve been in there for years. Some say birds dropped fish flying over and nature took care of the rest. We pump water from the pond and spray it on the crops.”

“Family,” Barry answered, returning to Jimmy’s original question. “I came here looking for my family.”

“Good a reason as any, I suppose.”

He offered Barry the flask, but he waived it off.

“Maybe we’ve got some of your people here.”

“Maybe, my family’s name was Rhodes.”

“Rhodes,” Jimmy repeated. “That’s not a good name around here.”

“Why’s that?”

“People say a man named Rhodes, Ezra Rhodes, helped put the veil over this city.” Jimmy took a long swig on the flask. “Some say he still walks this town at night with a thing he calls his sister. You oughta to keep this conversation between the two of us.”

“What do you mean?” Barry asked, perplexed.

“Folks here are real giving, but they’ve lived in fear for a long time. If they knew you were a Rhodes, they might not take well to it. Catch Doc and Sully in the morning. They can tell you about the Rhodes family and you can trust them to keep quiet about it. Well, I better go get some sleep.”

“Goodnight, Jimmy...and thanks for the advice.”

Jimmy stood up and walked off into the darkness. Barry sat for a while watching the fish jump with any thoughts of his illness far from his mind.

C H A P T E R  T H I R T Y - T H R E E

P
eople sat chatting and eating breakfast in the dining tent. A kitchen was set up in the back where a crew was busy preparing eggs and bread for the hungry camp. Barry sat with Doc and Sully who had returned safely from a night on watch. The kids happily munched their food next to Jen and Jackson at the end of the table.

“Jen, we can’t just drive out of here,” Jackson pleaded.

“We got in here,” she replied. “There must be a way out.”

“Miss,” Sully said. “Some of us have been here longer than we care to remember. We all have people, friends and family on the other side. Don’t you think we’ve tried leaving?

“Sully’s right, Doc added. “The only thing you’ll do out there is get yourself killed.”

“So, that’s it? We spend the rest of our lives sitting here hiding from those things?” she asked.

Doc and Sully didn’t answer.

“What about Barry?” Jen demanded of Jackson. “He’s sick. If he doesn’t get help, he’ll die.”

“Jen,” Barry stuttered. “I am fine. Let’s not get into that right now.”

“What’s ailing you, Barry? Sully asked. “Maybe Doc can help. He was one of the top surgeons in Charleston till he got stuck here with us.”

Doc sipped a cup of black coffee, looking slightly embarrassed by Sully’s description.

“I would be happy to take a look at you, Barry,” Doc added.

Jen stood up and took her plate and silverware.

“Jackson, kids, why don’t we give these guys a little privacy?” Jen said.

Jackson and the children gathered up their own plates and walked towards the kitchen.

Doc stared at Sully but didn’t say anything.

“It’s okay, he can stay,” Barry said.

Barry poured himself a cup of coffee from a dented metal coffee pot. He held the pot up to Doc and Sully, but they both waived him off. Barry hesitated for a moment, then described the history of his illness and the family he was looking to find. Both Doc and Sully reacted when he mentioned the name Rhodes. He could see in their eyes his medical problem had been replaced by something far worse.

“The Rhodes family is damned,” Sully said. “All of ‘em. They are the ones that started this whole mess.”

“Sully’s our camp historian,” Doc added softy. “He has been trying to piece together the history of this place.”

“It all began with a man named Ezra. Ezra Rhodes,” Sully said. “He went off to serve his country in WWI and returned four years later a changed man. But Ezra didn’t return alone, he brought home a woman named Evangeline. He claimed she was his sister who had run away years before. According to Ezra, she was wandering in the mountains of Montenegro, half starved and naked. He rescued her and brought her back to Auraria when the war ended.”

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

B
arry 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

W
hen 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