Instinct (22 page)

Robby’s hand moved and Romie’s finger squeezed the trigger a little. Brad could actually see it move from where he stood.

Slowly, Robby completed the action. He picked up the dead man’s journal that was on the table next to him. Without looking, he flipped the thing open and held it up towards Romie.

The gun didn’t waver, but Romie’s curiosity got the better of her.

“What
is
that?” she whispered. Romie kept the gun trained on Robby as she leaned in. She kept getting closer and closer to the book. Brad couldn’t see what she was looking at. From his angle, the page looked like it was covered with squiggles.

Romie eased forward until she was absurdly close to the book. Brad thought that Robby might have come up with a way out of his jam. All the boy had to do was reach out and he could push the gun away so it wasn’t pointing at him any longer.

Robby didn’t need to. Romie moved just a quarter inch closer, and she collapsed.

The gun went off when she hit the floor.

Robby turned and looked at the fresh bullet-hole in the wall. The boy reached down and picked up the gun from the floor. He fiddled with it for a second and popped out the magazine. With another motion, he emptied another round from the chamber.

Brad finally found his wits and moved forward. Lisa and Pete seemed to have the same thought. Brad knelt down next to Romie as Robby picked up the dead man’s journal.

“What did you do?” Lisa asked. She and Pete rolled Romie onto her back.
 

Pete leaned in and put his ear close to her mouth. “She’s breathing.”

Brad started to figure it out as Robby spoke.
 

“Before he committed suicide, the guy upstairs drew some symbols. They’re like the ones I recorded back home. If she hadn’t been leaning forward, she would have just gone into a trance. I didn’t mean for her to fall down. It affects some people more than others, but anyone who looks at the things will go into a trance.”

“But you didn’t go into a trance earlier,” Lisa said. “And you read the book.”

“It takes both eyes,” Robby said. He closed an eye, so they would understand.

“Let me see that,” Pete said. He took the book from Robby, who didn’t object. Pete moved away from the others before he opened the journal. Pete closed his left eye and began flipping through the pages.

“How long will she be out?” Lisa asked.

“I don’t know,” Robby said. “It affects everyone differently. I think a mother and daughter would have a same response. I haven’t tested it very thoroughly. Judy was barely responsive. Brad went under for quite a while.”

“You’ve seen these things too?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” Brad said. He shrugged and turned up his hands. “There were strange symbols on the wall in Robby’s basement.”

“You can’t even read these things,” Pete said. “Why the hell would they make her pass out?” He tossed the journal back towards the table. It hit with a hard slap.

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Brad was asleep when Romie came out of her trance. He heard her mumbling and he woke to see her sitting up with Lisa sitting by her side.

“Where’s Robby?” Romie asked.

“He’s upstairs,” Pete said. “He went up to sleep on the mattress up there.”

“No! It’s not safe!” Romie tried to get to her feet, but her limbs weren’t obeying her. Brad understood as he watched her try to rise. It was tough sleeping on a hard floor. His joints didn’t want to cooperate either. He looked to the window. The light coming through the blinds was low and pink. It would be time to get up soon anyway. He got up and moved to the ladder.

“Robby?” Romie called.

The boy’s head appeared through the hole.

“Be right down,” he said.

Lisa was rubbing Romie’s back with one hand and supporting her under her armpit with the other.

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine,” Romie muttered.

Pete was pushing aside the curtains on the door and looking out to the woods. Brad walked over to the door. He turned to see Robby coming down the stairs.

“Listen,” Romie said. She was still waving off Lisa’s help. “Everyone, listen. We have to get out of here. It’s not safe. We’ve got to get closer to the center of this thing. That’s the only place we’ll be safe from the liquid and the snatchers.”

“What are you talking about?” Lisa asked.

“I know what we have to do,” Romie said.

“You’ve had a long night,” Lisa said. “You’ll feel better in a few minutes.”

“No, you have to listen. I know what to do. I talked to God.”

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“I’ll tell you, but only when we’re moving,” Romie said. “We need to get moving.”

“Did God tell you how we’re supposed to get out of here with all that killer liquid on the roads?” Pete asked. He moved to one end of the bookshelf and Brad took the other. They moved it aside to unblock the door.

“Yes,” Romie said. “You have a trail map, right?”

“Sure,” Pete said. He pointed at the table. He grunted as he forced the door open through the broken glass.

Romie unfolded the map and held it up.

“We can follow this trail. It goes alongside a stream. The liquid doesn’t like regular flowing water.” Romie said.

“That makes sense,” Robby said.

“Great, now we’ve got two of them,” Pete said. He kept his voice low. Brad wasn’t sure if anyone else heard the comment.

Lisa gathered up the few things they’d found in the cabin and joined Romie as she headed for the door.

“Watch out for our friend,” Pete said.

They found the corpse on the side of the building, still resting below the window. As far as they could tell, it hadn’t moved from when they’d pitched it out. The leg was a few feet away.

“There,” Romie said. She was pointing.

Brad looked in the direction of her extended finger and saw the trailhead marked with a blue and white blaze.

“Does it go to the river?” Pete asked. He was looking around, trying to get his bearings.

“No. Away from it,” Romie said. Pete joined her at the map and they consulted. “See, we’re on a ridge or something. Streams go both ways. We’re moving away from the river on this trail, but sticking close to this stream. It ends up at this little pond, here.”

Pete nodded and mumbled as he watched her finger trace out the trail. “Okay, I get it,” he said after they had conferred for a moment.

Romie led the way and Pete walked just behind her. The light was fading fast. It gave the woods a beautiful, flat look, that Brad found incredibly peaceful. Everything was perfectly still and glowed in the light from the sunset. They marched through underbrush to the trail and then followed it as it wound around and down, alongside the creek.

Before long, their path met the rock wall that they’d followed the night before. The creek and the path cut perpendicular to the wall and continued downhill. Brad knew what was next. They would find the road somewhere up ahead, and they would know if Romie’s prediction was correct.

Their trail was gravel in some places, and wood chips in others. Romie strode with confidence. Pete kept his head turned towards the ground. He was on the lookout for any mysterious liquid crossing their path. Up ahead, the woods cleared out, and it looked like the trail ended at the edge of the highway. Even at a distance, Brad saw the lines of liquid that made their grid on the asphalt.

“Now what are we going to do?” Lisa asked.

The question was a couple of seconds premature. With a few more strides, they saw that their trail ducked under the road. There was an overpass. Between the concrete sides, the stream and the trail joined together to flow beneath the highway.

“It’s fine,” Romie said. “I told you—the liquid doesn’t like flowing water.”

She kept walking. Brad paused. On road above, the liquid coursed and pulsed. If it had any opinion about the flowing water, it wasn’t apparent from it’s behavior on the overpass. He followed a line of the stuff as it flowed into the grass to the side of the highway and then down a ditch and up the hill. Here and there, he saw where the liquid glittered in the grass. Most of the time, it was hidden. He’d never seen anyone step in the stuff, and, based on Robby’s description, he was sure he never wanted to.

Romie was moving without fear.
 

Pete walked fast behind her to keep up.

Brad caught up as Pete grabbed Romie’s shoulder and dragged her to a stop.

“Wait, would you?” Pete asked. He kept his voice low. They were nearly under the surface of the highway. Their path was totally dark where it passed under the road.

“It’s fine,” Romie said.

“Maybe it is,” Pete said. He had a tiny flashlight that he’d found at the ranger station. He knelt and pointed his light parallel to the surface of their trail. The light picked up a few chunks of broken glass and a wet spot just a couple of paces in front of where Romie stood.

Pete shuffled closer to get a better look.
 

“It’s fine,” Romie said. She walked past him and trudged right through the wet spot. The others held their ground until she stepped back onto dry concrete, several paces later.

Pete stood up and followed. Brad brought up the rear.

The light began to fade for real as they walked into the forest on the other side of they highway.

“Guys,” Brad said. He was pointing his light behind them, where they’d come from. Lisa’s arm shot out when she saw. The liquid had closed on the side of their trail. It stayed off the gravel, but they could see it moving through the leaves and just next to the rocks.

Farther back, there was a clear margin between the trail and the start of the liquid. Brad saw why—it was at a spot where the trail and creek were fairly close together. The liquid wasn’t respecting the path, it was keep its distance from the running water in the creek.

“She’s right,” Pete said.

“No shit,” Romie said. They kept walking.

The creek eventually disappeared into a culvert and their trail ended when it came to a bike path. Robby found the sign. The path was a converted railroad track.
 

“Which way?” Pete asked.

Romie and Robby spoke at exactly the same time. “West.”

It made sense. To the east, the bike path must have headed towards the river.
 

“Can I see that?” Pete asked. He borrowed Brad’s more powerful light and cast it down the surface of the bike trail. “It looks clear.”

They headed west.

CHAPTER 14: NEW YORK

“W
HO
’
S
THERE
?” R
ON
CALLED
.

Judy grabbed his arm to shut him up. He didn’t get the message.

“Who’s down there?” Ron asked.

The lights bobbed and swayed and began to come down the hall.

Judy thought her heart would stop. She imagined ghost soldiers of this forgotten place, rising up to capture the intruders.

“Stop!” a voice called. “Identify yourselves.”

“It’s us!” Judy yelled. Despite the order, she ran forward. She didn’t know exactly who the voice belonged to, but she was certain that it was one of Luke’s bearded men. For the first time, she was happy to have one of them near.

“Stop!” the voice yelled again.

“Relax, they’re with us,” another voice said.

Ron was right behind Judy as she approached. She saw the frightened faces behind the beards and she pulled to a stop.

“Thank god you guys found us. We saw this ladder and then we got lost down here. I didn’t think we were ever going to get out,” Judy said. She flashed a glance to Ron, warning him to keep quiet.
 

“You’re lucky we happened to go into that shed. You could have been down here a long time.”

Judy wondered exactly how much luck was involved.
 

“Do you know which way is out? We got all turned around and we couldn’t find anything,” Judy said.

“This way,” one of the bearded me said.

One of the men led the way and the other brought up the rear. Their flashlights explored the space as they moved through. They took them up the ladder. Judy took the night air deep into her lungs, happy to be aboveground once again.

“You should stay out of here. Consider this area off-limits until we figure out what’s down there.”

“Absolutely,” Judy said. She was thankful that Ron had kept his mouth shut. She grabbed him by the arm and led him away from the shed. The men stayed there, debating which one of them should stay and which should go find the others to report their find.

“I’m the one who found it,” Ron whispered. “Now they’re going to take all the credit.”

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Judy was engrossed in her book when the sides of her tent shook. It was one of the biggest problems of living in a city of tents—there was no good way to knock. People ended up thumping the side of her tent when they were looking to come in, and it always surprised the hell out of her.